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
- What explains success in fighting corruption:
the Polish case
- Senior Civil Service in Central and Eastern
Europe
- Europeanization
as Europeanization panel focused on EU matters: Relations and Management
- Politico-Administrative Relations in
the Context of City-Owned Companies: Case Study of Slovak Public
Transport Companies
- Progress or Backsliding in
Civil Service Reform in the New Member States of the European Union
- 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".