Public Administration in Times of Crisis Public Administration in Times of Crisis Selected Papers from the 18th NISPAcee Annual Conference, May 12–14, 2010, Warsaw, Poland Edited by: Rainer Kattel Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia Witold Mikulowski National School of Public Administration, Warsaw, Poland B. Guy Peters University of Pittsburgh, USA Bratislava: NISPAcee, 2011 Copyright © 2011 by NISPAcee The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe Public Administration in Times of Crisis May 12–14, 2010, Warsaw, Poland Published by NISPAcee Press Polianky 5 841 01 Bratislava 42 Slovak Republic tel / fax: 421 2 6428 5557 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.nispa.org Printed in Slovakia ISBN 978-80-89013-56-2 This publication was funded by LGI / OSI (The Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative, Open Society Institute), Budapest, Hungary and the National School of Public Administration, Warsaw, Poland. The book contains papers from the 18th NISPAcee Annual Conference “Public Ad- ministration in Times of Crisis”, Warsaw, Poland, May 12–14, 2010 organised in co-operation with the National School of Public Administration, Warsaw, Poland. Table of Contents Introduction: Public Administration in a Time of Crisis ...........................................7 SECTION I Main Theme: Public Administration and the Crisis Public Administration in Times of Crisis Wolfgang Drechsler ............................................................................................ 15 Shifting Challenges of Public Administration During the Economic and Financial Crisis Helena Kisilowska .............................................................................................. 27 The Bulgarian Approach to Public Administration Reform in Times of Crisis Polya Katsamunska ............................................................................................ 43 Crisis and Taxation: The Case of Hungary Valéria Limpók ................................................................................................... 55 The Influence of the Global Economic Crisis on Regional Differences in Romania Dana Mihaela Murgescu ................................................................................... 65 The Global Crisis: An Incentive for Civil Service Reform ? The Romanian Case Iulia Cristina Popescu ........................................................................................ 85 Building a Model of Leadership Development in Times of Crisis Claudio Andres Rivera ....................................................................................... 99 SECTION II Managing Public Personnel Public Administration Studies and Training: Networking in the Context of High Technology Development Nikolaj Ambrusevič ......................................................................................... 121 Work Satisfaction in the Public Sector: A Case Study in the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Armenia Androniceanu, Simona Sora ............................................................ 139 Developing a New Approach for Civil Servant Appraisal in Ukraine Ivanna Ibragimova ........................................................................................... 155 Measuring Gender Equality in Public Institutions: An Exploratory Study Sorin Dan Şandor, Simona Claudia Creţa, Felicia Cornelia Macarie ........... 179 SECTION III Globalization and Governance Cultural Personnel Governance in the Stage of Globalisation Audrone Pauliukeviciute, Alvydas Raipa ....................................................... 195 Globalisation of Ethical Values in Public Administration: The Crisis of Ethical Values in the Modern State. Małgorzata Perzanowska, Marta Rękawek-Pachwicewicz ............................ 211 SECTION IV Information Management and Public Administration Elections in Information Society:The Case of Local and European Parliament Elections in 2009 in Estonia Kristina Reinsalu ............................................................................................. 221 Digital Governance (in Romanian Municipalities) and its Relationship with IT Education: A Longitudinal Assessment of Municipal Websites in Romania Catalin Vrabie .................................................................................................. 237 SECTION V Public Administration in Poland In Search of Recognition and Compromise: Civil Service Reforms and the Evolution of Polish Politico-Administrative Relations (1989–2010) Tatiana Majcherkiewicz................................................................................... 273 Crisis Procedures in Polish Public Law Janusz Niczyporuk, Marek Stefaniuk .............................................................. 303 Introduction: Public Administration in a Time of Crisis Public administration, and the public sector more generally, is always confronting challenges to its effectiveness and efficiency. Even public programs that are appar- ently simple, pose interesting and complex issues about designing and adminis- tering policies. Likewise, simply managing large, complex structures for delivering public programs can be difficult, and can require highly capable and skilled public managers. Further, as governments have begun to utilize a variety of alternative methods for delivering public services the managerial and policy challenges have tended to increase. Although public administration must always confront challenges, the last sev- eral years have presented a number of even greater challenges. The contemporary mixed-economy welfare state has been designed around affluence, and the capacity to have continuing high levels of public expenditures along with continuing lev- els of private affluence. This general pattern of well-being was also premised on the continuing success of national economies and the common success of those economies. Even countries that had appeared immune from economic worries soon found themselves facing severe demands on their public resources and the need to reconsider well-established patterns of governing. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have encountered many of the governance problems, but have encountered perhaps even more extreme difficulties. First, they began the period in question with lower levels of wealth, and therefore any diminution of their incomes has somewhat greater relative con- sequences for these governments. In particular the Baltic countries saw globally steepest declines in GDP during the crisis. (Kattel 2010) Also other CEE economies, relying both on exports and foreign investments to drive the economy, were quickly drawn into the global crisis. Although more conservative banking and regulato- ry practices prevented some of the worst excesses of the crisis in these countries, still the general decline in the world economy, and more particularly the European economy, has had a pronounced negative impact on these systems. As well as the rather fundamental economic issues created by the financial crisis, these governments have not had the time to develop a reservoir of political 7 Introduction: Public Administration in a Time of Crisis trust as have the governments of Western Europe and North America. Furthermore, most CEE countries cannot rely on a stable Weberian civil service as it is still nas- cent. (Randma-Liiv 2009) Therefore, any necessities to reduce public programs and expenditures will present more fundamental political challenges to these regimes. Finally, these externally-driven demands for socio-economic reform must be added on top of significant continuing programs of reform in both the economy and the political system. Thus, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe are confronted with a serious set of overlapping challenges that they must attempt to master in order to maintain their legitimacy and their effectiveness. Membership in the European Union during this time of economic and political crisis has represented both opportunities and challenges for the Central and Eastern European countries. Membership in the EU has imposed a number of requirements for reform in the public sector on the new members. The need to make administra- tive practices, and government practices more generally, compatible with those of other member countries have been a major dimension of the changes in the public sectors of the CEE countries, and has required significant developments in the in- ternal processes of these systems. These challenges are offset, to some extent at least, with the increased flow of funds from Brussels that can to some extent subsidize government operations. Even with these funds, however, there is a need to adminis- ter them in ways that conform to the general guidelines established in Brussels. When confronted with the challenges arising from the economic crisis the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and indeed all the countries affected, had several seemingly contradictory options for reacting. In most cases, for example, the reaction was to centralize decision-making and to restrict participation so that a more strategic reaction could be made to the problems being posed. On the other hand, some countries such as Slovenia and Sweden, tended to open participation in order both to gain more information for decision-making and also to coopt social actors into accepting the decisions once made. At the same time that these challenges that have arisen from the financial crisis are occupying a great deal of the available time and