Organised in cooperation with the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
The 21st NISPAcee Annual Conference, organised
in co-operation with the Faculty of
Organisational Sciences, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, was
attended by 220 participants from 30 countries worldwide. This included 18 CEE
countries covered by NISPAcee’s institutional membership.
NISPAcee would like to thank the local
organisers, the University of Belgrade, represented by its Dean of the Faculty
of Organisational Sciences, Prof. Drakulic Mirjana, and other
colleagues, 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 to 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 third time, NISPAcee included special Pre-conference Programmes for Young
Researchers: Master Class "How
to improve your paper”. The Master Class was conducted by ProfessorDr. Michiel de Vries, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
The conference was opened with welcoming and
opening speeches given by representatives of NISPAcee, the University of
Belgrade, Serbian Ministry of Justice and Administration, EAPAA, EGPA, UN DESA,
IASIA, ASPA, NASPAA. The conference programme consisted of working sessions on the main conference theme, general sessions,
meetings of research working groups,
EAPAA sessions, ASPA and ReSPA panels, and Panels on new projects, which
enriched the programme of the conference with new information, and a
presentation of new initiatives and opportunities for collaboration with
external organisations, as well as within NISPAcee. In addition to the WGs,
NISPAcee organised special sessions focusing on the current hot topics of PA
practice in CEE to be explored and discussed with practitioners - Colloquium for Practitioners.
Main
conference theme sessions
Chairs:
Marius Profiroiu, Bucharest Academy of Economic
Studies, Romania
Ilona Palne Kovacs, Institute of Regional Studies,
Research Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Science
The submitted abstracts have been grouped into
two sessions. The first one dealt with regional policy from different aspects
and scales. Three papers were presented. Nico Groenendijk from Twente University
(The Netherlands) introduced the macro-regional movements within and beyond the
EU borders regarding them as a means for the further integration of regions and
countries.
Aleksander Noworol from the Jagiellonian
University, Poland, held a theoretical presentation on partnership
organisations, motivated by the European cohesion policy, emphasising the role
of this principle in regional development. Györgyi Nyikos, National University
of Public Service, Hungary, dealt with the new, contradictory challenges of
cohesion policy, showing the main paradox of the parallel aim of competitiveness
and solidarity.
The second session focused mostly on public
administration at regional level. Svetlana Safina introduced the process of
regionalisation in the Russian Federation from the aspect of the Bashkir
constitutional process. It was interesting to compare the views on the same
topic in the next paper by Alexey Barabashev, Higher School of Economics,
Russian Federation, who dealt with the regional deconcentration of Russian
presidential apparatuses. The third paper by Aleksander Markovic (co-authors
Marko Vulic, Bozidar Radenkovic and Labus Aleksandra), Belgrade University, was
on social networking in the field of e-government services.
The final plenary session was also devoted to
the topic of regionalism. In a framework of panel discussions the coordinators,
Marius Profiroiu and Ilona Pálné Kovács, asked the participants about the
regional reforms implemented or planned in their countries. The participants Calin Hintea (Babes-Bolyai
University, Cluj), Slobodan Dujic (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), Kakha
Shengelia (Caucasus University, Georgia) and Györgyi Nyikos (Hungary) outlined
the very diverse conditions and ambitions of regionalisation which are present
or even absent in these countries, providing national evidence for the fact
that there is no single pattern to be followed.
The main message of the sessions and
discussions was that much research and evidence are required in order to assist
the regionalisation processes in Central and Eastern Europe where the first
experiences are ambivalent.
The main conference theme was also discussed
within a round table in the closing
plenary session comprising Marius Profiroiu, Romania,
Ilona Plane Kovacs, Hungary, Calin Hintea, Romania, Slobodan Dujic, Slovenia
and Kakha Shengelia, Georgia.
Reports of Working Groups
I. Working Group on Lo cal Government
Coordinators:
Gabor Soos, Political Science Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
Budapest, Hungary
Arto Haveri, Tampere
School of Management, University of Tampere, Finland
Topic: "Regionalisation and local
governments"
In line
with the general theme of the conference, the sixth year of the Working Group
on Local Government focused on the relationship of regionalisation and local
governance in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS).
Both the
functional needs of public administration and the requirements of the EU
structural funds led several countries in CEE to either establish new tiers, or
to reform the middle level between the central and local government tiers. The
general aim of the working group was based on the various CEE or CIS problems -
do regional-local relationships live up to the normative expectations and
highlight the similarities and differences between countries or regions?
53 applications
were received, from which 30 abstracts were selected, and in the conference, 18
presentations were made. The geographical coverage was not as widespread as the
coordinators wished, but better than last year. A total of seven presentations
came from Poland, two from Hungary, Russia, Romania and Lithuania, and one from
Estonia, Slovenia and Latvia.
The
quality of the papers has been improving during the last few years and this
year was no exception. While papers were at various levels of maturity, there were
a number of good and well-structured papers, which could be developed into
journal articles. The trend of professionalisation also continued also in the speeches
made. Presenters observed the time limits, focused on the main points, and used
the projector.
The topic
of the group for the 2014 conference in Budapest will be "Mayors,
ministers, administrators: Local governments in the political context"
II. Working Group on e-Government
Coordinators:
Kristina Reinsalu, e-Governance Academy, Tallinn, Estonia
Ljupco Todorovski, Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana,
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Over the
past years, the focus of the e-government working group has been on building a
learning platform of exemplary showcases of using ICT in the public sector in
the countries of the NISPAcee region. As a consequence, most of the papers have
been very country-specific, focusing on a descriptive, often non-critical,
analysis of exemplary cases of e-government applications. The shift of focus of
the working group towards more universal topics and problems attracted more
analytical papers on relevant and important aspects of e-government, common to
all the countries in the region. We received twenty-five abstracts in the first
round of submissions. The final programme was based on fourteen full papers.
Many authors addressed an analysis and evaluation of e-government initiatives
in their countries, while some of them had a narrow single-sector focus (e.g.
e-health) with broad cross-country comparisons. We clustered them in five
sessions: one on evaluating e-government, two on analysis of e-government
initiatives at local and regional level, one on analysis of e-governance and
e-health at national level, and one technological session on ideas for using
contemporary wireless technologies for innovative e-government solutions.
III. Working Group on Civil Service
Coordinators:
Patrycja Suwaj, Polish Association for Public
Administration Education, Poland
Hans-Joachim Rieger, DBB Akademie, Germany
With an average of more than 15 – 20 participants in each
session (except the last one) this working group was very good occupied. The
presenters and the participants were a good mixture coming from science and
practice. This mixture of participants could also be observed in the
presentations, were we had scientific findings and comparative studies as well
as practical implementations and project reports.
Topics of the working group for this year were linked to
concepts of HR policy and strategy in civil services and performance of
training, tools and instruments for public servants:
• General views on civil service EU
• Ethics, integrity management and leadership
• Professionalization qualification, learning and teaching
• Reform of public service and instruments implementation and
research
• Specific regional and instrumental aspects of public service
All papers had clear objectives and also some practical
solutions. Some project reports were presented the third time so it was very
interesting to follow the project result and the project implementation. The
presentations improved very much: The presenters avoided a too broad history
background discussion and came straight to their message and what to learn out
of their findings.
IV. Working Group on Public
Administration Reform in CEECA
Coordinators:
Veronica
Junjan, University of Twente, School of Management and Governance, Enschede,
The Netherlands
Diana-Camelia Iancu, National School of Political Studies and Public
Administration, Faculty of
Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania
The theme
of the 21st NISPAcee Annual conference in Belgrade "Regionalisation
and Inter-Regional Cooperation” was particularly interesting for WG IV, PAR in
CEECA. Fourteen papers out of the 15 which were originally selected were
presented during the five sessions assigned to our group. The papers were
grouped in sessions according to the following central themes: PAR Theory;
Stimuli; Actors; Instruments; and PAR as social Innovation. Our audience included practitioners and
academics alike, varied between 15 and 20 participants per session, and engaged
in very lively discussions. Practical and personal experiences, theoretical
frameworks, and methodological approaches were carefully analysed.
The
discussions reached several conclusions. First, it seems that there is a need
for more reflection the relationship between "reform” and "change” in the
region. Public administrations do engage in transformations at all levels, but
consistency is required when analysing the degrees, patterns and reform trends.
External and internal driven forces, as well as obstacles for promoting
different courses of change, failures and successes (however defined) were all included
in the presented case studies and were more carefully coupled with the domestic
contexts. Second, as practitioners
pointed out, discussing regional experiences is crucial to meaningful research.
Raising awareness in academia on sensitive issues in the field is also
extremely important.
In perfect tune
with our fruitful discussions, our group proudly announces that the CPA-ICPAF
Award for Best Comparative Paper presented at the NISPAcee Annual Conference
was awarded to one of the papers presented in our sessions, namely, "Ex-post
control and steering of government agencies in Lithuania and Romania”
co-authored by Vitalis Nakrosis, Calin Hintea, Dan Balica, Adrian Hudrea, and
Zilvinas Martinaitis.
V. Working Group on Internationalisation and Networking of Public Administration Studies and
Civil Servants’ Training Systems
Coordinator:
Eugenijus
Chlivickas, Training Center of the Ministry of Finance, Lithuania, President of
the Lithuanian Public Administration Training Association
WG V was coordinated by Eugenijus
Chlivickas, Director of Training Centre of the Ministry of Finance, President
of Lithuanian Public Administration Training Association, Lithuania.
Internationalisation and networking
processes are one of the most important conditions for the modernisation of
public administration studies and civil servants’ training systems in the
European Union and in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The public
administration studies and civil servants' continuous training systems are
closely related to the strengthening of administrative capacities and new
quality creation according to the new global challenges.
This year the main focus was on the
following issues:
- accepting new challenges for the improvement of public
servants’ training, studies
and qualification quality in the future;
-
the
importance of internationalisation, networking and inter-regional cooperation
for teaching and professional development processes;
- sharing
new experience accumulated in CEE countries, members of the EU, whilst
improving public servants’ qualifications and organising teaching and studies;
-
possibilities
for the application of the experience accumulated by the 'old' EU countries as
well as the USA or other Western countries in CEE countries;
-
opportunities
for the dissemination and application of Central and Eastern countries’
experience in Russia and other CIS countries and opportunities for applying
experience from Russia and other CIS countries by inter-regional cooperation;
- integration
of scientific research elements into processes of studies, training and
qualification improvement through networking and internationalisation.
The work in the group in 2013
revealed several problems of international cooperation development in the area
of civil servants’ training and suggested solutions to them. The title and
content of the WG is relevant to solve the problems encountered.
VI. Working
Group on Public Finance and Public Finance Management
Coordinators:
Lucie Sedmihradská, Department of Public Finance,
University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic,
Juraj Nemec, Matej Bel University Banska Bystrica,
Slovakia
The WG on
Public finance and public finance management focused, during its meeting,
on local government finance, public financial management and fiscal policy
issues. Originally, two tracks were originally announced for this conference,
i.e. a general track matching the name of the working group and a specialised
track "Quantitative methods and public finance research”. However, only
applications for the general track were received. In total, 17 papers were
presented, six of them in two monothematic sessions focused on local government
finance and efficiency evaluation and the remaining papers in three mixed
sessions. The addition of one session for the WG meeting allowed time for
further discussion and more focused comments for the authors.
VII. Working Group on Public Policy Analysis Development Issues
Coordinator:
Frans Jorna, Associate Professor of Governance, Center for Urban and Environmental Development,Enschede, Netherlands
This year’s
NISPAcee conference focused the attention of the working group on regional
policy and regional cooperation, more specifically, on how to improve policy
development, with an eye on the social relevance of the working group. Out of
the 24 papers received, 10 were finally included in the programme. The
discussion was organised in five sessions:
-Session 1:
Introduction; Evaluation and Learning (2 papers)
-Session 2:
Assessing policies: normative perspectives (2 papers)
-Session 3:
Capacity building: gearing up to improve (2 papers)
-Session 4: Case
studies (3 papers)
-Session 5:
Evidence-based recommendations to the WG (applied to 1 paper being presented)
Over 50% of
this year’s WG participants had been participating in previous conferences as
well, so that the WG was able to develop a continuous approach and arrange
itself in order to cooperate more closely in the upcoming year. In the
discussions, one common theme emerged: the need for policy coordination
(public-public; public-private) and the consequences for policy design. The
group identified two joint research lines that should be explored:
- Performance and
impact measurement
- Comparative
approaches of public policy analysis: regulatory versus participatory
approaches.
The
potential value of the WG for each of its members is high. As colleagues, we
can consult each other, review, ask questions, help out with literature, identify comparative cases, publish, initiate
joint research programmes and work together as an international group of policy
analysts to be flown in anywhere in our region. We are still far from realising
that value, however. Arrangements were made to make a first step in this
direction:
- Reconnecting
with active participants in previous years to share this year’s work and invite
them to (re)join.
- Compilation of a
shared body of knowledge, available for all of the group members, on the basis
of an exchange of literature used.
- Development of a
comparative Case inventory.
- Exchange of
curricula and syllabi used by the members to improve our academic programmes.
- Selection of
other venues up to next year’s NISPAcee conference for a core group to start
writing together.
- Identification
of practitioners that stand to profit from our work and who could be somehow
connected to the group.
- Improvement of
the group’s Facebook page.
VIII. Working Group on Public
Administration Education
Coordinators:
Calin Hintea, Babes-Bolyai University, Department of
Public Administration,Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Theo van der Krogt, EAPAA (European Association for
Public Administration Accreditation), University of Twente, Enschede, The
Netherlands
This year
we received fewer papers and had to reject several of them. Also, some of the
accepted papers were not presented because the presenters were unable to attend
the conference. Therefore, the coordinators decided to use 3 slots for the
presentation of ‘special items’.
In the end
5 ‘normal’ papers were presented as planned, 4 of them in 2 slots and one
(because the presenter was severely delayed) during one of the special slots.
The five
papers had different subjects. One paper presented a (partial) replication of
an earlier research on types of PA programmes. A second paper described the
transformations in PA curricula in Lithuania in connection with public sector
reforms. A further paper described the UN project to develop capacities for
professionalism, integrity, and ethics to prevent corruption in the public service.
Another paper discussed plagiarism in academia, and a further paper that
described PA education and its challenges in Afghanistan.
One of
these special slots was used to discuss the Tuning-PA project and the
development of generic and specific competences. In another slot, a special project
of Babes-Bolyai University was presented, in which Romanian and US students
collaborated in research in Romania. Three examples of such projects were
presented by the students themselves. In the third special slot, NASPAA’s
vice-president presented a paper on global collaboration to promote standards
of quality in public administration education. The presentation was followed by
comments from representatives of NASPAA, IASIA and EAPAA.
Attendance at
the meetings of the working group was very good. In total, 49 different persons
attended one or more of the meetings.
IX. Working Group on Administration and Management of
Internal Security Agencies
Coordinator:
Sander Pollumae, Estonian
Academy of Security Sciences, Tallinn, Estonia
The Working Group on
Internal Security is a new NISPAcee Working Group, whose objectives are: 1) to
present theory-based country case studies in the working group following a detailed
research programme and summarising them into comparative studies; 2) to provide
a common ground for comparative research, joint research programmes and
international cooperation on training and exchange of experience between
practitioners and researchers in the domains of prison, police and other areas
of internal security. This was the second meeting of the working group with the
general goal to focus on country studies. During the session, Mr Aleksander
Aristovnik presented papers "Performance measurement in the Slovenian
police at local level: A DEA approach" and "The common assessment
framework (CAF) and employee satisfaction: The case of the Slovenian police
service" and Mr Sander Pollumae presented a paper "Disciplinary
proceedings of convicts in prisons of Estonia". Mr Konrad Pawlowski gave
an overview on the role and activities of the Polish border guard. Next year’s
conference topic was also discussed.
The group will focus on a rather
more theory-based analysis of bureaucracy and government of internal security
agencies. Some joint studies were agreed.
X. Working Group on Good Governance, Human Rights and
Development
Coordinator:
Tetyana Malyarenko, Donetsk State University of
Management, Donetsk, Ukraine
The
second meeting of the WG on Good Governance, Human Rights and Development
focused on case studies of the implementation of a human security strategy in
concrete public policy initiatives in countries of Central Eastern Europe,
post-soviet countries and Afghanistan. Whereas the first meeting of WG10 was
aimed at discussing human security as a concept for foreign and domestic policy,
as well as clarification of the links between human security and good
governance, the meeting in Belgrade gave priority to the practice of
implementation. Through a thorough analysis of a few single country case
studies and structured comparisons, the members of the WG and guests elaborated
a comprehensive overview of why human security has increased importance for
public management, both in developed democracies and countries in transition.
Colloquium for Practitioners
Coordinator:
Michiel
de Vries, Radboud University
Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
During the 21st NISPAcee
conference in Belgrade, for the first time, a colloquium for practitioners was
organised by Michael Brintnall and Michiel S. de Vries. The colloquium
consisted of two sessions. In the first session, public-private relations were
discussed and during the second, the difficulties of administrative reform. The
goal of both sessions was not to discuss papers, but to discuss the topics as
such. This proved to be very interesting and all participants were enthusiastic
about the approach. During both sessions there were a huge number of
participants who enjoyed the idea of discussing the topical themes instead of
scholarly papers.
One of the peculiarities of
the colloquium was that although the sessions were primarily meant for
practitioners, the majority of the attendants were academicians. This was, of
course, in accordance with the small number of practitioners attending the
conference as a whole, but nevertheless something might be done to attract more
practitioners to this colloquium next year, if it continues. One of the ideas
is to have an extra session in which the winners of the EPSA award present what
they did in order to receive that award and to discuss these practices.
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.
A new Steering Committee member was elected for another period – Jadranka
Djurkovic, Human Resource Management Authority, Government of Montenegro. Ringa Raudla, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
was re-elected for another period.
NISPAcee Awards
During the 21st NISPAcee
conference held in Belgrade, Serbia, May 16-18, 2013, the following awards were
presented.
The Alena Brunovska Award for Teaching Excellence in Public Administration was
given to Prof. Calin Hintea, Dean of the Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania.
The NISPAcee Merit Awards were presented to Prof. Gyorgy Jenei,Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, and Dr. Theo van der Krogt, General
Secretary, EAPAA (European Association for Public Administration Accreditation) for their
substantial support and contribution toNISPAcee's development.
The Mzia Mikeladze PhD Thesis Award was presented to Mrs. Jane Järvalt, Tallinn University of Technology,
Estonia for the PhD thesis "Strategic
Human Resource Management in the Public Service: Evidence from Estonia and other
Central and Eastern European Countries”.
The
Best Comparative Paper presented at the Conference was presented to
the winners Prof. Vitalis
Nakrošis, Vilnius University,
Lithuania, Dr. Žilvinas Martinaitis, Vilnius University, Lithuania, Prof.
Calin Hintea, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania, Mr. Dan Balica,
Babes-Bolyai University, Romania, Mr. Adrian Hudrea,
Babes-Bolyai University, Romania for their paper "Ex-post control and
steering of government agencies in Lithuania and Romania”.
The Award ‘NISPAcee
Best Graduate Student Paper’ was presented to the winner Ms. Palina Prysmakova, Florida International University, Miami, USA for the paper
"Public Service Motivation in
Europe: Testing Attitudes toward Work Motives”.