Activities: Working Group on Democratic Governance

The Working Group studies how public administration education and public policy can improve multi-ethnic democracy. Papers this year examined public institutions: the ombudsman in Bulgaria, the minority self-government in Hungary, limitations of civil society in Uzbekistan and how EU rules may advantage stronger minorities over weaker ones, as faced by Tatars in Ukraine. We found language issues central, though variable, depending on the group's sense of discrimination and ability to mobilise resources. The group heard about PA education in Estonia and Georgia and met with the Forum of Deans and Rectors of Schools. We find there continue to be too few resources to bridge social, economic, political and linguistic inequalities that limit the access of minorities to PA education.

Call for papers 2008

B: Forum of Heads of Schools and Institutes of Public Administration

The Working Group continued with the innovative "Panel of Deans”, building of previous years’ experience. Deans or heads of schools and institutions of public administration were invited to speak about the challenges they face in multiethnic democracies, and how they have overcome these challenges, such as through recruitment policies or curriculum development.

Topical issues in curriculum development: Incorporating Diversity in Public Administration Education had been discussed from the experience of the recently conducted workshop, organized by the Curriculum Resource Center (Central European University), the Center for Policy Studies (Central European University), and the Managing Multiethnic Communities Program of the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (OSI) in Budapest, Hungary. An opportunity for the synthesis of views and experiences from a range of social, political, and economic contexts has been presented. Deans and heads of schools and institutions of public administration have been informed about the new opportunities to incorporate diversity in PA education and offered additional support to involve more applicants in next diversity workshops.

Topic: Good Practices to Mainstream Diversity into PA Education

The Forum provided an opportunity for colleagues working in high-level, decision-making positions to deliberate on challenges and obstacles, and the strategies they adopted to overcome these challenges.

Activities in 2007

Meeting of the Working Group on Democratic Governance of Multiethnic Communities

Place: The 15^th NISPAcee Conference, Kyiv, Ukraine

Date: May 17-19, 2007

Topic 2006-2007:

‘The Role of PA institutions in promoting diversity management in diverse societies’

1st phase: The coordinators of the WG - Ms. Zsuzsa Katona, Ms. Petra Kovacs and Dr. Michael Brintnall introduced a new topic for the two year project.

2nd phase: Ms. Petra Kovacs, Dr. Michael Brintnall
Ms. Meghan Simpson, Research Associate, Managing Multiethnic Communities Program of LGI/Opens Society Institute

Report of Working Group from the meeting at the 15th NISPAcee Annual Conference (click on title to see more about the conference) Kyiv, Ukraine, May 2007.

For the 2007 Annual Conference, Working Group IV contributed to innovative public administration reform in the NISPA region by exploring how schools of public administration and training centers can play a leading role in preparing current and new public officials to work in a culturally competent way in diverse environments and can engage in advocacy-oriented research focused on the issues faced by multiethnic communities. Including a diverse body of case studies from Georgia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, USA, and Uzbekistan, a regional research program by the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI), and a high-level forum of deans and heads of schools of PA, and drawing a total of 34 different conference participants from 14 different countries in session discussions, Working Group IV sessions presented an opportunity for the synthesis of views and experiences emerging from a wide range of social, political, and economic contexts.

Several different themes emerged in Working Groups discussions. Participants looked at several models of PA education and training that have emerged in disparate contexts. such as specialized schools devoted to ethnic inclusion (Georgia), in-service training programs for public servants (Georgia, Serbia, Hungary) or cross-cultural and bi-national exchange programs. Presentation addressed different modes of incorporating minority groups into public administrations. These included historically-rooted, community-based institutions (Uzbekistan and Ukraine, minority governments (Hungary) and interethnic councils (Serbia), and adopting a social focus to urban planning. Studies also explored the need for inclusive language policies in public administration, including building languages skills of public administrators, or by developing innovative teaching methodologies to make crucial links between multilingual public administration and responsive and transparent governance (Ukraine). A special panel by ECMI addressed the need for research and data on minority inclusion in the civil service, as there is virtually no information on the actual present level of inclusion of minorities in the bureaucracies in Eastern Europe. The strategies will help to analyze and evaluate different institutional arrangements made by governments in Eastern and South Eastern European states. Finally, the Forum of Deans revealed the need for more systematic work to integrate diversity issues into public administration education and to engage NISPA member institutions to take a lead role in doing so.

Several key points emerged out of presentations and discussions, which deserve further attention in public administration education and research and could serve as the basis for future NISPA and WG IV initiatives. Studies showed a gap between need and supply for public administration education for minorities, indicated by the low level of attention paid to multi-ethnicity in public administration, as well as the low participation of minority students in PA. As well, there is a gap between need and resources necessary for PA education to address multi-ethnicity effectively. Discussions also showed the necessity to link schools and institutes of public administration to communities, such that education is designed in ways that recognize – and responds to – barriers that hinder minority access to public administration and public life. Discussion highlighted the fact that, in a very basic way, educational and wider social, economic, political, inequalities can limit access of minorities to public administration. State language was stressed as key political issue that schools must address openly when preparing public servants. In response, schools and institutes must actively reach out to diverse communities. Schools of PA can be role models through their policies, such as through curriculum design, language teaching, or recruitment strategies. Schools can also steer research: as the ECMI panel revealed.

In order to continue to advance principles of democratic governance in multiethnic communities, the Working Group looks forward to more in-depth studies from contexts across the NISPA region and beyond for the upcoming 2008 conference. Such studies will add to a comprehensive body of challenges and good practices that can support the integration of diversity issues into public administration education. The Working Group hopes to continue to engage actively heads of schools and institutes of public administration by organizing thematic events or curriculum development workshops.

Finally, the Working Group IV welcomes Tamar Abdaladze, director of Zhvania School of PA, Georgia, and Natalya Kolisnichenko, Associate professor of the National Academy of Public Administration, Ukraine as the new coordinators for 2007-2008.

Activities in 2006

Meeting of the Working Group on Democratic Governance of Multiethnic Communities

Place: The 14^th NISPAcee Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Date: May 11-13, 2006

Theme: Public Administration and Public Policy in Emerging Europe and Eurasia:For Professionalism, Impartiality and Transparency

Detailed information about WG meetings with the list of the presented papers

The Working Group IV focused its attention on the role of and the manner by which public administration schools and institutes promote constructive multi-ethnic diversity and its management. This was done by examining the nature of the challenges faced in terms of multi-ethnic diversity management by the region’s governments and the preparation which public administration students receive in order to face these challenges.

The working group received two quite different types of papers. The first group of papers focused on various national and institutional perspectives in terms of the training of future and current civil servants. Particular attention was addressed in them as to how issues of multi-ethnic diversity and diversity management are dealt with in the various schools and institutes of public administration. Studies from Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine were presented. A second group of papers focused on the various policy challenges involved in the integration of diverse groups into society in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine, and in Hungary and Kyrgyzstan. See the page NEWS.

Activities in 2005

Meeting of the Working Group on Democratic Governance of Multiethnic Communities

Place: The 13^th NISPAcee Conference, Moscow, Russia

Date: May 19-21, 2005

Theme: Delivering Public Services in Multi-Ethnic Settings

Participation in the meeting of the Working Group at the 13^th Annual NISPAcee, Moscow, Russia, served three audiences. Discussions included a number of scholars who have participated regularly over several years in the Working Group discussion, showing progressively more advanced bodies of work and understanding of the issues. There were also included this year newer scholars who were presenting at the NISPAcee for the first time, both adding new insights to discussions and developing experience in professional exchanges. And the group was joined by representatives of important related organizations working on similar issues in the region and elsewhere, including NASPAA and the European Centre for Minority Issues.

The working group focused on the political participation of minority groups, on new tools such as ombudsmen, and on the role of public administration schools in building successful multiethnic democracy. Progress was noted in the inclusion of Roma women in political life, when training curricula is in line with Roma lifestyle. Ways that national integration strategies could supplant conflicts with new modes of dialogue were discussed. A study of curricula in public administration programs showed little progress in developing new teaching approaches to prepare for these challenges. The working group coorrdinators have decided on the new focus of future study. The coordinators of the WG recommended two presentations for the Conference Proceedings 2005.

Activities in 2004

Meeting of the Working Group on Democratic Governance of Multiethnic Communities

Place: The 12^th NISPAcee Conference, Moscow, Russia

Date: May 13-15, 2004

Meeting of the "Working Group on Democratic Governance of Multiethnic Communities" 2004

Theme: Diversity and public services: Introducing new standards of diversity management in changing Europe

Multi-ethnic democracies raise many challenges for public service and for administrative systems operating in nations within and without the EU, and across its borders. In the working group, these issues were explored in terms of three broad themes: identity - at individual and national levels; programs -- - particularly design, data gathering, evaluation, and inclusiveness in delivering services to ethnic and cultural minorities; and public administration education - preparing public officials to operate positively in multi-ethnic environments and building an inclusive public service.

Papers looked at ways political leaders sometimes seek to symbolically manipulate identify for national advantage, at how data gathering about ethnic minorities can enhance or thwart efforts at self-identification and can work best if based on engagement and informed choice within minority communities themselves, at how attitudes of public servants toward minority communities can influence effectiveness in providing services to them, and how training both for public servants and for leaders of ethnic minority communities can enable more effective service provision and eventual inclusion.

The working group concluded with a discussion of a possible action agenda for the future - a plan to bring public administration educators together with key stakeholders from the public sector and from ethnic and cultural minority communities to define new standards for diversity management and for the education of new generations of public officials
- from majority and minority communities alike - to administer them.

List of the submitted papers for the meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania

Activities in 2003

Meeting of the Working Group on Democratic Governance of Multiethnic Communities

Place: The 11^th NISPAcee Conference, Bucharest, Romania

Date: April 10-12, 2003

Theme: Enhancing the capacity of local governments to provide equitable access to minorities

The working group on Democratic Governance of Multiethnic Communities started its activities three years ago with the aim of getting a clear picture of the performance of local governments in promoting inclusive policies responsive to the needs of ethnically diverse communities. During the last two years, the Working Group discussed about 20 case studies from more than 12 countries of Central and Eastern Europe Many of the cases will soon be published in a separate volume with the aim of helping local authorities assess their capacities and measure progress in responding to the needs of ethnically diverse communities.

In Bucharest, sessions of the Working Group contributed to the main conference theme by analyzing the impact of reforms on public services, especially the introduction of policies emerging from the new public management on the equitable access of minorities to locally provided public services, and to design of inclusive service strategies.

The working group began with a theoretical discussion of the issues involved in analyzing and measuring inclusiveness and equity in public services, especially in the context of multi-ethnic conflict. Michael Brintnall introduced a series of talking points focused on factors emerging at the level of individual behavior and attitudes, such as racism and persecution; from the perspective of social structure, such as tolerance for pluralism, concepts of underclass, and policy design; from the perspective of legal rights, such as antidiscrimination policies, international human rights policy, and affirmative action; and from customer service and public management perspectives, such as improved models of public service delivery and civil journalism. He added that professional associations, such as NISPAcee itself, can play an important role in preparing the public service to respond to issues of multi-ethnic diversity, from these many perspectives. In combination with the specific evidence reported in subsequent papers in the working group, the working group explored these concepts and the idea of developing an agenda for NISPAcee and the community that educations and trains public services, to serve as building blocks for a future action plan for the group.

Andrey Makarychev wrote about immigration issues in the Volga Federal District of Russia. He documented important developments in Russian immigration policy and demonstrated that immigration policy is important for the economic and social health of the majority population as well as for the immigrants themselves. He called for immigration policy in the region to become more substantial and flexible, and included practical steps such as establishing ombudsmen functions in localities in the region to help in mediating the relationship between immigrants and public services. This paper stood out for noting that issues of immigration are signification not only for the status of the immigrant groups themelves, but for the economic and social health of the whole region and the majority population there as well. Solutions thus must be farreaching and comprehensive.

Jana Krimpe and Maksim Golovko looked at the interplay of electoral representation and political, legal, and citizenship rights of non-Estonian minorities in Estonia. They noted how alliances with majority parties may provide some access for minorities to public policy making but can weaken overall achievements. They also looked at issues of political, legal, and citizenship rights and observed how policies affecting minorities can become entwined in national political issues such as national-local relations and even in international issues, such as the interests of neighborhing countries with a concern form the minorities involved.

Rustem Ablyatifov showed how legal changes had increased opportunities for inclusion of the Crimean Tatar population in the Ukraine. Furthermore he demonstrated a "ripple effect” by which this one step forward led in turn to more elected leadership posts, followed by increased appointments of deputies from the Crimean Tatar community. He pointed out in turn the need for continued reforms to assure a fair of representation in the future.

Activities in 2002

Meeting of the Working Group on Democratic Governance of Multiethnic Communities

Place: The 10^th NISPAcee Conference, Cracow, Poland

Date: April 25-27, 2002

The working sessions of the WG were devoted to an in-depth analysis of new models and methods of public service delivery from the point of view of ethnic diversity. The aim of the WG was to assess and analyze public policies that determine the access of minorities to public services. The Working group discussed 14 case studies based on the research guidelines "Who Benefits?: Ethnic Bias and Access of Minorities to Public Services”. Case Studies were contributed from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Israel, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and the Ukraine. Sessions of the WG have contributed to the main conference topic by analyzing the impact of reforms of public services, especially the introduction of policies of "New Public Management” on the equitable access of minorities to locally provided public services.

Participants agreed that transition involved transformation of most social, economic and political structures and processes. Although these changes deeply affected the relation between states in transition and their citizens, not all of them are equally important from the point of view of ethnic diversity. Whereas decentralization may contribute to the formulation of ethnically biased policies by leaving institutional frameworks of representation and power sharing non-regulated. Reforms of public administration, especially policies based on principles of New Public Management may strengthen ethnic bias through promoting management systems evaluated against measures of economic efficiency only and through the denial of broader social costs of policies from among the criteria of evaluation. New Politics of Welfare may provide an argumentative support for new rules of redistribution based on membership. The NPW is an ideology as it creates moral categories by defining justified and unjustified needs. It creates a social welfare system, which is based on the economic cooperation between members of the community by linking economic efficiency and social justice. Such rules of distribution may result in the effective exclusion of Roma in CEE, Russians in the Baltics, new minorities of the states of former Yugoslavia.

Meeting of the "Working Group on Democratic Governance of Multiethnic Communities” 2001

Place: The 9th NISPAcee Annual Conference in Riga, Latvia

Date: May 10-12, 2001

Target group: Academics and scholar, young university teachers

Theme 2001: ”Equity for minorities: measuring access of minorities to public services”

The Working Group on Governing Multi-ethnic Communities had its second meeting at the 9th Annual Meeting of NISPAcee. The members of the WG further discussed policy issues related to democratic governance of multi-ethnic communities both at the central and sub-national levels of governments. Panel discussions of the working group included two major topics:
1) Policy impact of the participation of minorities in central governments (Case studies from Romania, Slovakia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were presented) and
2) Access of minorities to locally provided public services (case studies from the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia were presented).

During the Riga meeting, members of the Working Group discussed and finalised a common protocol for a comparative research project: "Who Benefits?- Access of Minorities to Public Services”.

Establishment of the Working Group on "Governing Multiethnic Communities” 2002

Place: The 8th NISPAcee Annual Conference, Budapest, Hungary

Date: April 13-15, 2000

Target group: Academics and scholar, young university teachers

The major topic of the 8th NISPAcee annual Conference "ten years of transition” provided a good occasion to address one of the most important features of democratization in early 1990s, ethnic and national diversity of the region. Since the fall of state socialism, systemic changes have resulted in extensive transformations in the structure of public administration.

At the same time, the renewal of the idea of nation-state automatically created internal and external conflicts, in which ethnic groups demanded greater autonomy, individual and collective rights and participation in various countries of the region. Many local authorities now have the devolved responsibility of implementing policies to conform to international minority rights standards. However, in case of most countries of the region, arrangements for education in mother tongue, political and economic participation that play a key role in the development of inter-ethnic relations remain part of the central policies, leaving little play ground for designing local policies.

Inter-ethnic relations and multicultural politics appeared to be a major issue for the EU accession of countries in the region. Although many international, national and local NGOs were actively advocating minority rights and act on the behalf of minorities, public administration and local governments almost never gets anything else but straight criticism. Therefore, there was an urgent need to develop methods to overcome the existing shortcomings and to provide governments with technical support and consultancy to design and implement multicultural policies that would meet the needs of diverse communities.

The aim of the working session on Minorities in Public Administration: an EU accession perspective was to identify what local governments and public administration could do in their fields of competencies to design and implement multicultural policies that would meet the needs of diverse communities.

At the working session, six papers were presented by authors from Hungary, Latvia, Russia, Romania, UK and the Ukraine. Presentations analyzed country specific and regionally relevant aspects of multicultural policies and the role of public administration to provide public services for minorities in the lights of new European directives and legislation on equal treatment of minorities and anti-discrimination and measures against racism and xenophobia.

Central conclusions of the discussion were (1) that EU enlargement would entail not only further development of minority standards in accession countries but will also require modification of EU policies. Nevertheless, (2) participants agreed that legislation and policy practices in accession countries might have a positive impact on minority rights and multicultural politics within member states of the EU. Participants agreed (3) that rights and policies towards minorities could be properly promoted only if minorities are fairly represented in both executive and legislative bodies. Policy approaches promoting political integration of minorities involve new measures of representation in various levels of decision-making. These measures or institutions of power-sharing may ensure that groups who are in minority position have a control of access to political power including a fair distribution of resources. It was argued (4) that decentralization may lead to ethnic fragmentation of larger states. Territorial sub-division of the state power can facilitate effective pluralism and confidence building without destroying the territorial integrity and the essence of political unity of the state. However, it is not without conflict and stress on national societies, therefore it has to be soft and negotiated autonomy which allow minorities participation in society without major conflicts. Participants stressed (5) that states should in their educational policies provide adequate training to law enforcement officials and street level agents to ensure access of minorities to various sorts of public services (education, social welfare, administrative services).

Finally, participants of the working session agreed to establish a Working Group on "Governing Multiethnic Communities”. It was decided that the Working Group would elaborate a common research agenda on Equity for minorities: measuring access of minorities to public.

In 2000-20001 the working group aimed to:
a) elaborate further the topic of equitable access to minorities in public administration
b) develop a research protocol
c) coordinate and implement a comparative empirical research
d) present preliminary research results at the 9th Annual Meeting of NISPAcee

The Working Group had been supported by a grant from The Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative Open Society Institute, Budapest, Hungary http://lgi.osi.hu