Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 14th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Main Conference Theme Author(s) Svein Eriksen Statskonsult Oslo Norway Title Promoting good governance in Eastern Europe – domestic responses to external influences File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract The paper addresses the issue of how external influences (i.e. actors, resources, norms and administrative models) have affected public administration reform in the Western Balkan region in the 1990-2005 period. For generations external patterns have significantly shaped the legal and administrative arrangements in countries on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia: · French and Austrian models during the inter-war period 1918-1941 · Soviet patterns after 1945 · Western European influences in the post 1990 period, partly in the context of EU integration Though external actors and models play key roles in the development of domestic administrative patterns, the transformative impact has been neither self-evident nor direct: · Generally, externally inspired reforms have been implemented in the face of domestic opposition. · Like other independent socialist countries, which had experienced an authentic revolution, Yugoslavia was reluctant to adopt foreign models, striving instead to develop its own brand of socialism. · Old habits endure when they are well entrenched and exposed to less than whole-hearted reform efforts. In Yugoslavia ingrained administrative traditions apparently withstood more than forty years of communism. · Studies of post 1990-reform processes argue that the effect of external support has been contingent on domestic factors, in particular dedicated national leadership and the existence of necessary administrative infrastructure. As this brief historical survey indicates, the extent to which a country is penetrated by external influences or profits from foreign support is dependent on the characteristics of external and domestic actors involved and the interaction between them. This reflection is the key premise of the proposed paper. It will be organised around four main questions: 1. What are the extent and topical priorities of the support/cooperation in the area of public administration reform? 2. How is the support/cooperation organised and regulated? 3. What are the key characteristics of the external and domestic actors in terms of leadership and structure, and how do these actors relate to essential governmental processes in the recipient country? 4. How do the features identified above influence the absorption of foreign aid and the penetration of external models? The choice of variables under questions 1-3, e.g. the particular aspects of leadership and structure under question 3, will be determined by their assumed relevance to question 4. The framework within which external impulses are transmitted may vary considerably. Thus, the paper will consider support/cooperation in various institutional contexts; bilateral assistance (with particular focus on support provided by the British, Swedish, and Norwegian governments), and technical support/implementation of policy reforms in the context of EU integration and World Bank credits. The paper will cover four countries in the Western Balkans: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Serbia. Its nature and objective are mainly exploratory; to identify topics and relationships that subsequently may be the object of more in-depth analyses. The paper will report results of a study (with terms of reference similar to the four points mentioned above) scheduled to start in November 2005 and end in December 2006. Data will be gathered from various sources, primarily · Existing literature · Evaluation reports · Semi-structured interviews with key decision-makers, domestic and external · The author’s own experience as advisor in the region.
