Abstract
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This article deals with the selection of bureaucrats in the Romanian public administration, between 1990 and 2010. Our inquiry is framed within the Public Choice Theory and has two main parts. The first one (A) examines the relevant literature on bureaucracy and formulates a theory of institutional change and public bureaucrats selection; while the second (B) consists in an in-depth examination of the Romanian civil service legislation of 1990-2010 and makes a policy proposal for the reform of the civil service in Romania. The authors’ contribution to extending knowledge in the field of civil service research consists in their refinement of Reid and Kurth theory of organizational change (1988), (1989) and in the application of this refined theory to the Romanian case. The new theory predicted that Romanian politicians faced inefficiency in maintaining a highly politicized civil service while accessing the European Union and, for that reason one should observe a depoliticization of the public bureaucrats’ selection system up to January 2007, followed by a re-politicization after January 2007. The documentary research performed on the recruitment and promotion of bureaucrats in the last twenty years, in Romania, followed partly Gajduschek’s analysis of the Hungarian civil service (2007) and confirmed the initial prediction.
Selected bibliography:
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Reid Jr., J.D.; Kurth, M.M. 1989. Public Employees in Political Firms: Part B. Civil Service and
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Gajduschek, G. 2007. Politicisation, Professionalisation, or both? Hungary’s Civil Service System. Communist and Post-Communist Studies 40, pp.343-362.
Mueller, D. 2003. Public Choice III, W Nyack, NY, USA, Cambridge University Press.
Niskanen, W.A.Jr. 1975. Bureaucrats and Politicians. Journal of Law and Economics 18. pp.617-
643.
Olson, M. 1993. Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development. American Political Science Review, Vol.87, No.3.
Peters, G. 1995. Bureaucracy in a divided regime: the United States, in J. Pierre (ed.), Bureaucracy in the Modern State. Aldershot: Edward Edgar Publishing Limited, pp. 18-38.
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