The 23rd NISPAcee Annual Conference, organised in co-operation with the Caucasus University, Tbilisi, Georgia, was attended by 300 participants from 40 countries worldwide. This included 24 CEE countries covered by NISPAcee’s institutional membership.

NISPAcee would like to thank the local organisers, the Caucasus University for the excellent organisation of the conference, financial support and preparation of the social events, which created a friendly and pleasant atmosphere for conference participants.

NISPAcee would also like to thank the programme coordinators of the conference sessions and working groups for their contributions to the high scientific and academic value of the entire event.

For the fourth time, NISPAcee included special Pre-conference Programme for Young Researchers: PhD conference Seminar "How to improve your research and paper”. The seminar was conducted by Professor Juraj Nemec, Masaryk University, Czech Republic and Associate Professor Iwona Sobis, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

 

Simultaneously, a new UNDESA-UNDP-NISPAcee Workshopstarted for the first time for the developing countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS Region entitled: Collaborative Governance for Improved Public Service Delivery : Capacity Building for Developing Countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS.

 

The conference was opened with welcoming and opening speeches given by representatives of NISPAcee, Caucasus University, Georgian governmental representatives, and UN. The conference programme continued with the working sessions of research groups and panels which enriched the programme of the conference with new information.

All details on the conference page: www.nispa.org/conference2015

Reports of the NISPAcee Working Groups

Main Theme

The WS on the conference main theme discussed the essence and limits of outsourcing by analyzing the generic issues as well as more specific cases. More specifically, the papers dealth with recent global evidence on outsourcing, issues related to agencification within public sector, the role of social enterpises in governance and outsourcing contexts, and outcomes of outsourcing attempts in resuce services. Participants talked, for instance, about the effectiveness of the outsourcing in low trust political environments and the bureacratic lag.

 

Working group on Local Government

The 8th year of the Working Group on Local Government focused on Leadership in Local Government in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Beyond this year's theme one of the panels was devoted to Europeanization and one to papers dealing with topics which are not related to local government leadership, but which otherwise contributed to local government studies in CEE and CIS.

Nine papers were presented (of the accepted 21 abstracts) in the four sessions (two papers in the Europeanization session). The geographical coverage was not as good as it has been the previous years. The biggest group came from Poland, other presenters came from Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia and Estonia. This year too, cross-country comparisons were not many, although they were particularly encouraged. But there were some very interesting empirical papers (country studies) analyzing local government reforms and leadership institutions and structures at the local level. As with each year, some papers concentrated on local government systems.

 

Working Group on E-government

This year, only four papers were presented. On the other hand, we have never had so many participants (approx. 35). So, even though the number of papers presented wasn’t high, the discussion was very fruitful – probably one of the best e-Government WGs from that point of view. We were lucky to have associate editor of the Government Information Quarterly, as well. We believe that all of the presenters have received a lot of useful inputs into their research work.

 

Working group on Integrity in Public Governance

Under the main conference theme "Insourcing and/or outsourcing: How do they contribute to public administration reformt” in the WG "Integrity” different topics were covered

• Development of Cross-Border Dialogues on Ethics: A Field Study with Global
  Application
• Integrity Management in Administrative Reforms: OECD Approach Revisited
• The Question of Transferability of Ethics Systems Across Sectors, Borders,
  Cultures and Organizations: A Critical Assessment
• Corruption in a Post-Soviet Country: the Case of Georgia
• Corruption Crisis and Integrity Challenges in the Public Sector in
  Post-Conflict Afghanistan
• Re-Examination of the Nexus between Elite Corruption and Capacity Constraints in Afghanistan’s Civil Service

·Europeanization as Europeanization panel focused on EU matters (topic 1 and Topic 2); Leaders and seniors

1.Profiles of political leadership: before they became famous - Career Paths of Senior Politicians and their administrative background

2. What explains success in fighting corruption: the Polish case
3. Senior Civil Service in Central and Eastern Europe
• Europeanization as Europeanization panel focused on EU matters: Relations and Management
1. Politico-Administrative Relations in the Context of City-Owned Companies: Case Study of Slovak Public Transport Companies
2. Progress or Backsliding in Civil Service Reform in the New Member States of the European Union
3. The Management Board in the Municipal Company as a Public Administration Body in Polish Legal System- Conflict of Interests Risk

A lot of new ideas especially from young professionals were always welcome and intensively discussed. All papers had clear objectives and also some practical solutions.

Within the discussions there are already new ideas for a working group 2016:

• Staff satisfaction and motivation
• Demography
• gender

Working Group on Public Administration Reform

In the past decades, outsourcing has been one of the core issues in public sector reforms across Europe. Questions on its pertinence for governmental effectiveness, role played in legitimising policies in low trust environments and facilitating internalization of international norms in decentralised, domestic contexts, were often raised both in academic and professionals’ debates.

The Working Group on Public Administration Reform in CEE & CA countries also tackled some of these issues and their implications. A fair group of scholars and practitioners debated the merits and demerits of outsourcing in three panels, namely: 1. Strategy and Strategic Decision – How to Think about Outsourcing; 2. Instruments of Outsourcing – Which are the Tools of the Trade? and 3. Implementation of Outsourcing: Why Does (or Does not) Work?. Quantitative and qualitative research findings of ten papers with single and multi-country settings led to a vivid and fruitful dialogue.

Barbara Lehmbruch and Marian Zulean depicted the legitimising role of outsourcing in low participatory policy contexts, while arguing on the latter’s effectiveness. Cultural and institutional challenges that outsourcing might imply for public organizations were discussed after the presentations given by Kuuli Sarapuu, Marton Gellen and Gabriele Burbulyte-Tsiskarishvilli. Normative questions on outsourcing (e.g. what public services should never be outsourced; are governments benevolent actors, interested solely in the welfare of communities, etc.) were targeted by discussants of the papers presented by Septimiu Szabo and Hendri Kroukamp. Finally, researchers and practitioners alongside engaged in debating best practices in outsourcing and policy experimentation based on the presentations given by Iwona Sobis, Mirjana Stankovic and Kaide Tammel.

 

Working Group on Regional Development and Inter-regional Cooperation

The working group held a general session, and EU Panel. The workgroup’s main concern is to advance a research agenda concerned with patterns of regional governance, the effectiveness of regional development strategies in different context, and the merits of inter-regional co-operation. The general session of the workgroup was dedicated to the topics as:

•complex development projects, as inter-countries transit of energy (case of gaz transit project through Afganistan)

•evaluation of regional development quality on the base of ex-aunt procedures

•Development of municipal HRM as condition for regional development.

Three presentations were made and 3 papers were received. The general session gathered 24 participants, which shows a clear and growing interest in the WG’s theme from researchers. The quality of the papers presented was extremely good and the session generated a lot of debates and discussions.

Dr. Fardin Hashimi (Kabul University) opened the proceedings with a paper on the problem of transfer of EU integration practice and theory on Central Asia inter-regional co-operation strategies. Alexey Barabashev (NRU-HSE, Moscow) concentrated his presentation on the ex-ante evaluation of strategies of regional development, proposing a new analytical tool to assist the process of regional development planning. The last presentation, produced by Valeria Utkina (NRU-HSE, Moscow), discussed municipal reforms in Russia, and the impact of municipal service quality on cooperative inter-municipal projects.

The purpose of the Europeanisation panel was to gather papers that have a distinctive European integration focus and that contribute to advancing the debate on aspects of integration within the realm of Regional Development and Inter-regional Co-operation.

The papers covered a wide range of aspects in the field of regional governance, from theoretical models explaining cross-border co-operation, to practical aspects of effective inter-regional co-operation, comparative analysis of optimization procedures and regional differences shaping work motivation of public sector workers.

Working Group on Public Finance and Public Financial Management

The WG organized two sessions dealing with local taxation and tax competition and the Europeanization panel on Public Finances in the EU and EU Associated Countries which dealt with outsourcing in the public sector, microsimulation models in the EU and the burning issue of decentralization in case of Ukraine. The last two papers focused on higher education financing and constructions regulation.

For the next year we plan to announce two research tracks (local taxation and public private interface) and we will try to encourage comparative research.

Working Group on Public Policy Analysis Development Issues

This year the WG received over 20 applications in the area of main fields of interest of the WG (public policy analysis methodology, tools and techniques). Roughly, the following themes could be distinguished: (i) evaluation of public sector organizations capacities, interventions and reforms; (ii) towards evidence - based policy making; (iii) comparative case studies of the application of techniques (e.g., regulatory impact assessment, ex ante impact assessment, policy evaluation, and performance audit) (iv) urban Policy in Regional Development (v) diffusion of knowledge on Europeanization.

The WG still remained a constructive, solid, learning forum for academic, policymakers and other stakeholders in exchanging experience on how academics can meet urgent needs of public servants, civil society in practice oriented evidence-based studies in preparing and promoting relevant policy advice as well as in upgrading academic and training programs in public policy analysis and encouraging transfer of knowledge on Europeanization of public policy.

In sum, 7 papers were selected and actually completed for presentation during the conference meetings in Tbilisi that formed for separate sessions on Europeanization. The participants from the Netherlands, Lithuania, Ukraine, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Estonia took part in the work of the group. There were three sessions focused on:

-Europeanization panel 1 - Do Specific National Experiences and Policy Domains Matter for Policy Analysis? Does EU-Integration Lead to Convergence?

-Europeanization Panel 2 on Country- Specific Experience

-Experiences from Various Policy-Fields-Public Finance and Urban Development

According to the results of discussion, the WG decided to continue the work in a more sustainable format concentrating on performance management/information and evidence based policy making issues. In the future, the WG would like to focus on common and clear concepts and methodology for public sector performance management.

 

Working Group on Public Administration Education

The Working Group held five sessions. The theme of the working group, in addition to the overall conference theme, was "Critical Issues in Public Administration Education.” Session One started with the co-chairs discussing these themes and laying the groundwork for the discussions to follow.

All of the presentations were of high quality. Substantial discussion was a part of each session.In addition, the presidents of ASPA, NASPAA, EAPAA and NISPAcee where also present in the working group sessions and made informal presentations or updates and generated considerable discussion.Papers covered topics on teaching methods such as case studies and concept maps, mid-career training programs, public administration competencies and accreditation.Many members of the audience of the working group participated in several of the five sessions such that a continuity of discussion was present. In fact, many were repeats from the sessions at Budapest indicating a development of a true, core working group on education within NISPAcee.

Working Group on Local Public Policies

In total, three papers were presented during the first session. The first paper "Local (Self-) government System and Local Governance in Slovakia: Case of Dilemma: Efficiency vs. Democracy” was presented by Dr. Daniel Klimovsky, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia. The paper itself addressed the issues linked to decentralization and its impacts in terms of quality of local democracy as well as managerial efficiency. The second paper "Performance of Water Infrastructure Planning Network: Case of Bratislava (Slovakia)” was aimed at water governance in Slovakia. Its presenter, Ms. Veronika Ferčíková, University of Economics of Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia dealt especially with network analysis in regard to planning stage of the water policy making. Last but not least, Dr. Davide Vannoni, University of Turin, Torino, Italy presented the third paper "Corruption, Accountability and Effficiency: An Application to Municipal Solid Waste Services”. Presentation was highly interesting, since the presenter was dealing with hot issue of interconnections between corruption, accountability and efficiency.

All papers presented during this session were directly or indirectly linked to dilemma of efficiency vs. democracy at the local level. One of the papers was a bit more general, while two of them were rather aimed at narrower issue. Regardless of this diversity, all the papers evoked relevant discussion, and it is possible to conclude that the local governments of various European countries had faced serious challenges since the late 1980s, and in addition, they had to cope with deep fiscal stress in the recent years. However, introduction of the same (or similar) tools/measures has led to significantly different outcomes. It confirms that the socio-political and economic environment is very important determinant, and relevant decision-makers must be aware of them in order to avoid potential failures.

 

Working Group on Transition, change and uncertainty

The activities of WG were divided into two main sessions. The first session approached the issues at hand from a European perspective, whereas the second concentrated on the impact of continuous large scale reforms.

Transition, change and uncertainty - The European perspective

Ionut-Bogdan Berceanu addressed the widely discussed issue of how the economic crises changed the Romanian government and administrative system. EgleGaule, Jolanta Stanislovaitiene, Jurgita Siugzdiniene and Jolanta Stanislovaitienė attempted to identify the characteristics of Smart public administration, and its major indicators in order to measure change in this regard in Lithuania in a wider, European context. Erkki Karo and Rainer Kattel raise the question if in the new technological environment one specific type of organizational setting is adequate for developmental agencies or more heterogeneous organizational arrangements may be beneficial. A major issue frequently addressed referred to the North-West and South-East divide within the EU.

Transition, change and uncertainty

Eva Kovacs systematically analyzed the Hungarian reform attempts between 1990-2012 regarding county-level administration in Hungary, looking for general trends (or the lack of them). Sorin Dan Sandor investigated the question of resistance to change. Based on a brief theoretical overview he provided extensive empirical evidence on the issues based on questionnaire survey. Ludmila Stanova attacked the widely known problem that policy decisions are frequently made in the CEE region without the necessary information; moreover: information is not even requested by the decision makers. Paper written by Gyorgy Gajduschek and Eva Zemandl provided a preliminary literature review on the problem of change and uncertainty in the public administration. The subsequent debate pointed out some crucial issues that require further research.

 

NISPAcee within anew EU project - ERASMUS+ Jean Monnet Project: Europanization in Public Administration Reforms established Europanization Panels within Working Groups and Panels. The Europeanization panels contained presentations of appropriate papers with points relating to EU integration within public administration and policy. Altogethere, there were 13 EU panels with 38 presentations. Aset of summaries of Europeanization panels discussed under all research working groups and panels during the conference will be published as an e-book and also as hard copies in English and Russian languages.

 

The part of the conference programme consisted of following Panel Sessions which enriched the programme of the conference with new information, new initiatives and new opportunities for colaboration with external organizations as well as within NISPAcee:

- Panel on Open Government

- Panel on Health Systems in Transition: Problematic politics of Raising Revenue and Delivering Health Care

- Panel on Quality Improvement of PA Programs in Caucasus Region Based on European Standards

- Panel on Islamic Public Administration

- ASPA Panel: New Models in Public Administration

- IIAS Panel: Trust, Public Service Delivery and Citizens at the time of Co-production

- Panel of Europeanization in Public Administration Reforms

 

The NISPAcee Business Meeting was also, as usual, on the conference programme. The annual reports (activities, finances) and future plans were presented to representatives of the NISPAcee members and other participating guests.

Since the NISPAcee member, Patrycja Suwaj and NISPAcee Immediate president, Gyorgy Jenei, completed thier elected period, the Steering Committee elected new members from member institutions – Kakha Shengelia, Caucasus University, Georgia and Gyorgy Hajnal, Corvinus University, Hungary.

 

NISPAcee Awards

During the 23rd NISPAcee conference, the following awards were presented:

The Alena Brunovska Award for Teaching Excellence in Public Administration was given to Prof. Vitalis Nakrosis, Professor of Public Administration, Institute of Intemational Relations and Political Science, University of Vilnius, Lithuania.

 

The Mzia Mikeladze PhD Thesis Award was presented to Jasmina Dzinic, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia for the PhD thesis "Impact of quality improvement instruments on organizational learning in administrative organizations".

 

The Best Comparative Paper presented at the Conference was presented to the winners Tatjana Jovanovic, Aleksander Aristovnik, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Tereza Rogic-Lugaric, University of Zagreb, Croatia for the paper " The construction of regulations in Slovenia and Croatia – material and procedural aspects between public and private interests”.

 

The Award for "NISPAcee’s Best Graduate Student Paper” was presented to the winners Tarmo Puolokainen and Annika Jaansoo, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia for the paper „Possibilities of providing public services threough outsourcing in small peripheral areas: The case of Estonian Rescue Services".