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SLOVAKIA |
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SLOVAKIA |
HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK
This section focuses on the historical development of public administration (PA) in Slovakia, despite the fact that Slovakia has a short history as an independent country. From the medieval period to 1918, Slovakia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1918, Slovakia joined the first Czechoslovak Republic, and, subsequently, from 1939 to 1945 became independent. From 1945 to 1968, Slovakia was part of the unitary Czechoslovakia, then of the federal Czechoslovakia until 1992. Slovakia became independent once again in January 1993, as the result of a democratic split of Czechoslovakia into two independent countries, the Czech and Slovak Republics. This report will focus on the period from 1968, when federal structures were established in the country and university education became the sole responsibility of the Slovak Ministry of Education.
In 1968, public administration was not recognised as an independent academic field. Top public servants were educated outside the country, mostly in Moscow, or in special “political universities” established by the communist party in Prague and Bratislava. Mid- and lower-level public servants did not receive any specialised public administration education, which negatively affected the quality of civil service. This situation still influences the current civil service, as most civil servants still do not have a university degree in PA.
The need to change the “materialistic” approach (according to defined economic theory, only employees in “material sectors” of the economy, e.g., industrial branches, agriculture, forestry, mining, building industry, etc. generated national income) and to begin promoting the service sector was recognised only in the 1970s. In 1977, the first faculty designed to educate individuals for all branches of public service was established as part of the Banska Bystrica branch of the Bratislava University of Economics.
From its inception, the Faculty of the Economics of Tourism and Services devoted a great deal of attention to developing programmes to prepare specialists for the so-called “non-producing” branches of the economy, including public administration. As a result, a programme in “Economics of Non-Producing Services and State Administration” was established in 1986. At the same time, similar programmes were established in the Czech Republic in Prague, Ostrava and Brno.
The Faculty of the Economics of Tourism and Services remained a unique institution offering PA programmes until the radical changes of 1989. However, public administration and public management subjects were included in the curricula of other faculties of the Bratislava University of Economics, primarily in the Faculty of the National Economy (e.g., public finance). After 1989, the number of PA/PM programmes in Bratislava rapidly increased and, thanks to this base, a new specialisation in PA was created. The introduction of these programmes was largely due to two factors. First, society started to feel the need for academically trained professional public administrators, prepared to effectively fill public administration and public management roles. Second, universities finally were able to choose the structure of their curricula, faculties and departments.
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