Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 18th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview VII. Working Group on Policy Analysis Author(s) Zdravko Petak University of Zagreb Zagreb Croatia Petek Ana, Ana Petek Title The role of policy analysis in the work of policy bureaucracy in Croatia File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract In what way are the mentioned dimensions of the process of policy-making generally implemented in Croatia? Is there a systematic evaluation of policy options as a phase anticipating the political decision by which a policy is legitimized? Respectively, is an evaluation conducted of the options connected to a policy, for the sake of better informing of the public. In the same way, does any body in the structures of the executive or legislative authorities deal with the policies that are being conducted in Croatia? Those are the fundamental questions to which clear answers should be given in order to get a clear picture of the way in which public policy is formed and conducted in Croatia. There is a number of specificities to the process of creating policy in Croatia, if we compare it to the usual process of policy-making in the western democracies (Petak, 2006a). The absence of conventional policy procedures is not linked just to the phase of policy evaluation. The problem goes far deeper and extends to the entire policy process. The absence of quite specific procedures is visible also in the initial phases of policy making – the placing of specific policies onto the agenda and the formulating of the possibilities for these policies. One could say, moreover, that the creation of public policy in Croatia isn’t actually based upon policy analysis as a system of decision-making in the public sector. If we begin with the standard distiguishing of policy profession, unlike other professions that can be the basis for decision-making in the public sector, we can easily say that by us is much more significant for instance the influence of the classical planning or the tradition of classical public administration than policy analysis. The policy analysis is only just acquiring the right to exist in our system of public administration. Given the fact that specialized units for recording, monitoring and evaluation of policy are just in the making, we can actually only say that policy analysis in Croatia has the opportunity of becoming an indispensable tool of the public administration. It’s important to emphasize the latter, because it‘s a fact that the embrya of policy analysis as a systematic approach in the evaluation of programmes already exist in some projects connected to the private sector, non-governmental organisation and international organisations that operate in Croatia, but that it hasn’t become the basis for decision-making in the public sector, in the departments of the government and state agencies.
