"Coming into our own - the evolution of the public sector in Central and Eastern Europe."

NISPAcee Panel at the ASPA Conference, 2016

The ASPA (American Society for Public Administration) Annual Conference was held in Seattle, Washington on March 18-22, 2016. A special NISPAcee panel was part of the conference programme on March 19, 2016.

The panel was chaired by Prof. Constantin Marius Profiroiu, Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE), and NISPAcee President. The objective of this panel was to provide comparative insights into how different administrative mechanisms commonly used in Western Europe and North America have, over time, been altered to perform better in central and eastern European contexts. Collectively, the papers presented on this panel set out to achieve two objectives. The first was to offer an insight into the types of governance issues central and eastern European nations experienced when attempting to adopt administrative practices common to Western Europe and North America, in order to address governance issues in their unique domestic settings. The second objective was to provide an overview of strategies that were adopted by central and eastern European nations to mitigate the issues associated with the implementation of these administrative tools. The panel attracted the attention of conference participants and contributed to discussions of governance by demonstrating strategies that can be adopted to better contextualise the administrative tools used in transitioning contexts.

 

The following papers were presented and discussed:

Contracting out in transitional countries

Authors: Juraj Nemec (MU Brno, CZE), Beata Mikusova Merickova (MBU Banska Bystrica, SVK)

Assessing the effects of fiscal decentralisation in Moldova

Authors: Eric Ceka and Gregory Porumbescu (Department of Public Administration, Northern Illinois University)

The rise of Smart Cities – How does contracting out for public services affect public sector innovation?

Authors: Veiko Lember, Rainer Kattel and Piret Tõnurist (Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance), Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia

The challenges of governance and strategic planning at local government level

Authors: Calin Emilian Hintea (Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca) and Constantin Marius Profiroiu (Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania), Roger Hamlin (Michigan State University, US).