Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 14th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview I. Working Group on Politico-Administrative Relations Author(s) Nenad Rava Center for European and Development Expertise and Programmes (CEDEP) Belgrade Serbia Title The role of presidency in ensuring accountability, professionalism, transparency and legitimacy of the policy process – The case of Serbia File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract THE ROLE OF PRESIDENCY IN ENSURING ACCOUNTABILITY, PROFESSIONALISM, TRANSPARENCY AND LEGITIMACY OF THE POLICY PROCESS – THE CASE OF SERBIA Nenad Rava Abstract The governance in Serbia is operating in a dynamic environment characterized by turbulent political change, strong external pressures from the international community and negative institutional legacy from the 1990s. In that context it is challenging to conduct an “inventory” of current institutional structures and, in particular, the politico-administrative relationships. What was the Serbian governance in 2001 is rather different from the Serbian governance in 2005 and will be even more different after the change in the legal framework (expected by mid-2006). An early observation shows that there is no genuine and permanent institutional framework and that the influence of governance style of a government of the day is the key factor defining the actual institutional set up. This is also a result of the fact that the legal framework and the everyday dynamics and relationships differ considerably given the weak legal enforcement and weak resistance to external political pressures . The administrative tradition and patterns of behavior in the Serbian governance are complex and often misleading. There seems to be a mixture of legalistic bureaucracy, an early democratic tradition from the begging of the last century, quite a few traces of patrimonial pattern internalized under the Ottoman rule, unique legacy of the communist regime and the impact of political turmoil of the 1990s. The transition dynamics and the plurality of factors prevent clear understanding of the current state of affairs. Furthermore, extensive fragmentation of the society has reflected upon the fragmentation of governance. Therefore, it is indicative that the Serbian governance at different periods and in different segments can be classified into almost any of the typical groups. The institution of the President–Presidency–has not been researched until recently. An UNDP initiative supported review of organizational, management and functional aspects (joint effort of professor Guy Peters and the author). The findings show that the Presidency is weakly institutionalized and has low policy capacity, mainly due to the fact that the current President is the first democratic president ever in Serbia. The lack of clear legal framework, negative practice from the period of Milosevic rule and a specific political context of cohabitation (the President is leading the most important opposition party) further complicate the relationships within the Presidency and between the Presidency and the Government. However, there is an evident potential in strengthening the role of the President (as the only directly elected official) in the policy process. Given the shortcomings of the existing policy process the engagement of the President and the support structures through a transformed Presidency could further ensure democratic accountability, professionalism, transparency and legitimacy – all of those that are currently lacking. Thus, the research will focus on elaboration of possible alternatives for a transformed Presidency and its involvement in “cross-cutting” policies (such as: European integration and human development). The research will be based on comparative analysis and an assessment of the influence of a tendency for further strengthening of the PM/Cabinet and weakening of Presidency in Serbia.
