Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 31st NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG3: Public Administration Reform in CEE and CA Author(s) Jowanka Jakubek-Lalik University of Warsaw Warsaw Poland Akimovska Maletic Iskra, Title PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REORGANISATION IN WESTERN BALKANS – QUEST FOR QUALITATIVE CHANGE OR RATHER SUPERFICIAL ADJUSTMENTS? File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Jowanka Jakubek-Lalik Abstract In the past years it has become clear that the public sector must be more proactive in responding to the changes posed by the new era to achieve more efficient administrative structures. The reorganisation of the public administration can be undertaken on various grounds such as external reasons, resulting from new policy priorities or implementation of international standards; internal reasons that can be political; or for the purpose of improving the general processes of management and culture from splitting or merging ministries or separating policy making from policy implementation. But in some cases, changes in the organisation of the administration are used to show political intent to address the problem, but not to make a profound impact on its functioning. Sometimes the reorganisation of the administration is rather used as a substitute for making difficult choices about management and priorities. Starting from the changes and challenges that occur in the field of the environment, the progress of technology, economic conditions, the dynamics of public administration and the requirements of international standards and prospective EU membership, the Western Balkan governments are trying to build an efficient and responsive administrative system that will address the challenges of the new era in a functional and organisational sense. In this paper, an attempt will be made through the analysis of the strategic goals, measures and achievements taken in the organisational setup of the public administrations from the region, primarily North Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, to gain an insight into the effects obtained from the reorganisation of the public administration. Taking into consideration the objectives of the paper, theoretical framework, legal analyses, comparative analysis of legal regulation, systematic and analytical collecting data from official written sources will be used.
