2-3 February 2012
Budapest, Hungary
The Corvinus University of Budapest, Department
of Public Policy and Management hosted one of the key academic events of
European Public Administration - the Fifth Trans-European Dialogue in Public
Administration (TED5). TED is an annual scholarly conference organised jointly
by the two key professional associations of Public Administration in Europe. Those associations
are the European Group of Public Administration (EGPA) and the Network of
Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe
(NISPAcee). TEDs are high-level, focused conferences on
timely topics in Public Administration, bringing together senior experts from
different regions, thereby facilitating interchange and discussion across
Europe and even including Central Asia and the Caucasus.
This year's TED focused on a key topic of contemporary government reforms, the
"Politics of agency governance". TED5 hosted many of the most
renowned European researchers of the field, the former and current leaders of
the European (EGPA) and global (IIAS) academic organisations of Public
Administration, as well as prominent US, Chinese, and Turkish scholars.
Hungarian researchers, active in the field, also participated in this event.
This conference focused on aspects of politics
in and around agencies in CEE, CIS and Western European countries. We invited
speakers to discuss issues such as:
- The
appointment of agency CEOs and board members (including issues of patronage
and politicisation).
- The
influence of agencies on the political and/or policy debate.
- The
role of politics and politicians in the decision to create agencies.
- The
role of politics and politicians in the governance (steering, control) of
agencies.
- The
merits of agencification for politicians and political parties (including
shifting of blame and risks, direct influence through appointments, and assets
in political bargains…).
- The
effects of interference by politicians in agency matters for the
functioning of agencies.
Participants – including, especially, young
researchers – who were interested in giving a presentation on any of these
topics or the theme of the conference, were invited to submit a short proposal
with an overview on how it reflects their own research interests and
activities.
TED5, as with the previous Trans-European
Dialogues, was a focused, by-invitation only, meeting of roughly 40
participants from Europe. Rather than formally presenting all attendees' papers,
the format centred on intense dialogue and discussions between the
participants. The discussions were structured into 4 sessions, each of which began
with a keynote presentation, followed by participants' oral contributions
reflecting on the key elements of their research.
Further information on the academic programme,
the participants and their contributions and future publications related to
TED5 can be found on TED's official website,
Further information at the EGPA web site:
http://www.iias-iisa.org/egpa/events/dialogues/ted-trans-european-dialogue/