CIAO DATE: 04/2009
January 2009
Centre for European Political Sociology
The question of the status of public administrations – outwardly a technical one – appears as an important political issue in the post-communist context. The form and place of the State is one of the main issues (political and scientific) raised by post-Sovietism in East European societies. The administration of the former regimes, along with the Communist Party, has embodied the Soviet type of centralised state control. It constitutes a particularly relevant context to evaluate the evolution of the form and action of the State in these new democracies. The administrations in socialist countries were based on the explicit rejection of the separation of powers. Administrative staff organisation was based on partisan selection and on the management of civil servants, as well as on the denial of a statutory identity specific to the civil service. The debate on the status of civil servants and services provided by the State has allowed for the redevelopment of a fundamental aspect from the former system: partisan intervention in the selection and management of personnel, and consequently, a degree of political autonomy for the administrative staff. More generally, the treatment of civil servants is important evidence of the conception of the State that prevails at any given moment in history.
Resource link: Europeanisation and the reform of the State: The influence of the European Union in the reform of the Czech public administration (1993-2004) [PDF] - 1.9M