NISPAcee The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe Politico-Administrative Relations at the Centre – Actors, Structures and Processes supporting the Core Executive Edited by Bernadette Connaughton, Georg Sootla, B. Guy Peters This book was sponsored by a grant from The Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative, Open Society Institute, Budapest, Hungary Copyright © 2008 by NISPAcee Politico-Administrative Relations at the Centre – Actors, Structures and Processes supporting the Core Executive Bernadette Connaughton, Georg Sootla, B. Guy Peters Published by NISPAcee Press Polianky 5 841 01 Bratislava 42 Slovak Republic phone/fax: 421 2 6428 5557 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.nispa.sk Printed in Slovakia ISBN 978-80-89013-39-5 NISPAcee is an international association focused on the public administra- tion. Its mission is to foster the development of public administration disci- plines and training programmes in post-Communist countries, increase the quality of instruction and research and assist its member institutions’ devel- opment at both international and national levels. Table of Contents Introduction Governing from the Centre: Presidents and Prime Ministers B. Guy Peters .................................................................................................................... 7 Section I Prime Minister’s Offices Variables of Balance Versus Bias of Politico-Administrative Roles at the Core Executive Georg Sootla ................................................................................................................... 19 Politico-Administrative Relations in the Policy-Making Process: The Adoption of the Estonian Government of the Republic Act 1992 – 1995 By Moonika Olju and Jako Salla .................................................................................. 24 Evolution of the (In)Formal Roles of the Prime Minister’s Office and the General Secretariat of the Government in Slovenia Alenka Krašovec ............................................................................................................ 36 Political Roles of the Estonian Prime Minister’s Office: Context, Practices and Consequences Georg Sootla, Ott Lumi ................................................................................................. 60 Evolution of Politico-Administrative Roles of Prime Ministerial Support Structures in Poland 1989 – 2007 Tatiana Majcherkiewicz ................................................................................................ 85 Section II Presidential Offices Reflections on Presidency and Executive Governance Oleh Protsyk ................................................................................................................. 111 The Presidency and the Political Roles of Cabinets in the Western CIS Countries Oleh Protsyk ................................................................................................................. 113 Administration of the President in Russia: Institutional Capacities for Politics 1991 – 2007 Leonid Smorgunov ...................................................................................................... 129 ‘Administering the Summit’: The Case of Kazakhstan Dinazat Kassymova and Colin Knox ........................................................................ 146 Section III Advisors and Political Civil Servants Staffing the ‘Summit’ – Evidence from East and West on the Role of Personal Advisors and Senior Civil Servants Bernadette Connaughton ........................................................................................... 163 An Institutional Perspective on Personal Advisors in Belgium: Political Actors and a Failure to Change an Institution During a Critical Juncture Christophe Pelgrims, Marleen Brans and Ellen Wayenberg .................................... 180 Ministerial Advisors in Estonia: Role Perceptions as Multi-Functionalism Maria Keris .................................................................................................................. 206 Civil Servants at the ‘Summit’ – a Comparison Between the Nordic Countries Markku Temmes .......................................................................................................... 225 Changing Relationships at the Summit ? Analysing the Role and Institutionalisation of Special Advisors in Ireland Bernadette Connaughton ........................................................................................... 244 Between the Pool of Spoils And Shallow Professionalism: Recruitment, Composition and Functioning of the Political Cabinets of Prime Ministers and Ministers in Poland 1997 – 2006 Tatiana Majcherkiewicz .............................................................................................. 268 Special Advisors to the Minister in Romania: Carriers of Political and Administrative Roles Bianca Cobârzan ......................................................................................................... 293 Conclusions Bernadette Connaughton and Georg Sootla ............................................................. 312 Index ............................................................................................................................ 318 Introduction Governing from the Centre: Presidents and Prime Ministers Governing from the Centre: Presidents and Prime Ministers B. Guy Peters1 1. Introduction Our usual image of presidents and prime ministers is as extremely powerful politi- cians who are capable of making and executing policy within their countries. That image is to some extent valid, but the role of these chief executives is not as clear as popular accounts of their place in government might appear. Further, the role that these executives play as leaders of their governments is being transformed in a number of ways, some of which are conflicting. These transformations of presi- dents and prime ministers are true in almost all political systems, but may be espe- cially apparent in the Central and Eastern European countries in which these roles are still being institutionalized. Although we often tend to think about all chief executives in governments as being rather similar, there are also marked differences between presidents and prime ministers (Weaver and Rockman, 1994). Both types of executives play some general leadership roles, but the nature of the constitutional systems within which they function provides different opportunities and creates different con- straints on the behaviour of these officials. There are even marked differences between prime ministers (or between presidents) in different countries, based on both formal rules and more informal rules about the office. Finally, more than perhaps any other officials in the public sector, individual characteristics (Feld- man and Valenty, 2001) shape the behaviour, and the success and failure, of pres- idents and prime ministers. It is important to understand the nature of the contemporary political ex- ecutives and the ways in which their involvement in the political process has been changing (see also Goetz, 2001). Some of the change represents changes in the roles that these executives assume for themselves, but these actors cannot, however, be considered in isolation of other changes in governance. This dependence upon en- vironmental changes is true no matter how important they may be as the major political executives in their countries. Indeed, transformations in public adminis- tration and in approaches to public policy have altered the possibilities for gover- nance and the range of acceptable activities by political leaders. This chapter will detail some changes in the environment of political executives, many of which will reduce the dominant governance position of political executives. I will then discuss the strategies that those executives have had for responding to the changing condi- tions, and their attempt to restore their dominant positions. 1 Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh. 7 Introduction 2. Constraints on Executive Power Despite the numerous resources available to political executives, there are also a number of restraints on their capacity to govern in the way that they believe reflects their mandate for governance coming from the public. Richard Rose (1976), for example, detailed a number of barriers to “party government”, or the ability of a po- litical party that comes to office to make and implement policy. Most of the barriers Rose identified were a function of the relatively small number of political officials relative to the size of the organizations they are meant to control, the relative dearth of knowledge and managerial skills of the ministers, and the commitment of public organizations and their bureaucracies to their particularized goals. Rose argued that these restraints applied to governments as a whole as well as prime ministers, but the analysis certainly would apply to the prime minister. The barriers to control by prime ministers are, however, exacerbated in governments such as Denmark with a strong Ressortsprinzip that gives individual ministers control over their policy area (Knudsen, 2000). Some CEE countries, e. g. Serbia, have equally powerful minis- tries relative to central political power. Rose’s analysis was based on the experience of the British government in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, and therefore did not take into account one of the most im- portant constraints on the powers of a prime minister – coalition