II. Working Group on Public Sector Quality
WG Programme Coordinators:

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Geert Bouckaert, Public Management Institute, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Email: geert.bouckaert@soc.kuleuven.be

Sergei Pushkarev, Ural State University, Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Russian Federation,
E-mail: sergei_pushkarev@mail.ru


NISPAcee Project Manager:

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Viera Wallnerova, Email: wallnerova@nispa.org

Report from the meeting of the WG in Ljbuljana , May 2006.

Topic 2006: The Impact of Public Management Reforms in CEE and the CIS
Reflecting on the unprecedented wave of public sector reforms in Central, Eastern Europe and the CIS in the last 15 years, the NISPAcee Working Group on Public Sector Quality has focused on public management reforms (PMR). The members of the Working Group have started cross-country comparative research which would cover 15 countries of the region.
For the meeting in Ljubljana, the participants prepared country public management tables in which they catalogued the process of PMR in their respective countries. Additionally, participants prepared country profile papers describing public management reforms. All papers followed the agreed-upon research methodology so that it is really possible to draw comparisons.
While there is still a lot of work to do, some preliminary findings are quite interesting. Most of the presentations pointed to the fact that the EU accession requirements played a major role in advancing PMR in their countries. The EU influenced PMR in candidate countries through law drafting, consultancy, funding incentives and other means. Other international organizations (for example, the World Bank, UNDP) has played an important role both in the EU candidate countries and other countries of the region. The presentations were rich in details and sharp on reform factors. Many participants observed that economic difficulties and corruption, low citizen pressure on the governments and national culture, reform path dependency and central elite dynamics are important factors for PMR in the region.
A special session was set aside to fine-tune the methodology for the next year. It was agreed that the participants will work on their country PMR papers which will be presented at the next NISPAcee conference. It is the goal of the Working Group to have a book on public management reforms in CEE and the CIS published by Fall 2007.
The coordinators and participants of the Working Group express their gratitude to LGI for making this research effort possible. Unfortunately, not all 15 participants were able to present their finding in Ljubljana due to logistical and other complications. However, the Working Group coordinators are looking forward to seeing all group participants in Kiev in 2007.

Archives:
Call for papers for the Working Group on Public Sector Quality