Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 19th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview PA Reform Author(s) Corina Georgiana Antonovici National School of Political Studies and Public Administration Bucharest Romania Title Dynamics of institutional structure in Romania between 1990 – 2010. Case study – central public administration File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract The rapid dynamics of society have determined comprehensive reforms of administrative structure and institutional systems in Central and Eastern European countries. The aim of the paper at hand is to analyze and explain the development of administrative structure in Romania in 20 years period from 1989-2010. The radical change of political regime from communism to democracy and from planned economy to market economy also necessitated corresponding changes in the institutional structure. The focus is on the center of the Romania government, i.e. on the ministries and their subordinate government agencies. The research is based on the analysis of various documentation (legislation, coalition agreements, legislative initiatives) in which the intentions and details of the many establishments, mergers and reorganizations of government agencies have been conserved. The theoretical part of the paper draws on the literature on organization theory, historical institutionalism, public management reforms in the established democracies and Central and Eastern European countries post-communist transitions. The paper aims first to compose a theoretical framework for analysis and second to analyze and explain the development of administrative and institutional structure in Romania from 1990-2010. The empirical analysis is based on a data set aggregating information on the changes of the Romania government structure from 1990-2010. The data set has been developed with the goal to map all the events of full organizations being established, terminated or reorganized within the group of Romanian ministries and government agencies in the period. It is concluded that the Romania administrative structure has been mostly shaped by the initial choices made for overcoming the communist legacy, the prevailing neoliberal views of the state and the European Union pressures for changes that have combined in specific points in time to provide institutional solutions. The reforms have been different from the New Public Management - type structural reforms in the Western democracies, both by their initial conditions and their content. Key words: reform, administrative structure, institutional structure, organizational change, New Public Management.
