Declarations and Reality of Europeanized Public Administration in Eastern Europe: Journals Content Analysis in Slovenia and Croatia

Abstract

Public administration is, especially in EasternEurope, declaratively reformed to complywith European standards and trends. In order todefi ne the mainstream topics and milestones ofadministrative development, a focused contentanalysis as a case study has been conductedwith regard to Europeanization in 223 articlespublished between 2011 and 2014 in the leadingspecialized journals in Slovenia and Croatia (InternationalPublic Administration Review and theCroatian and Comparative Public Administration).The methodology of content analysis hasbeen applied in order to gain objective and comparableresults in the fi eld and on the cross-nationalscale. The main fi ndings reveal that Europeanizationis the common thread in both journalsand countries. However, based on the Slovenianand Croatian case study, one can claimthat in Eastern Europe public administration isin earlier developmental stage, as countries arestill often dealing with rather basic restructuringinstead upgrade of good administration principlesas in the West. Moreover, the declaredinternationalization of public administration andbest practices exchange are fragmented and underdeveloped.The Eastern European countriesshould consequently intensify their efforts to amore advanced and systemic understanding ofthe European standards to cope with modernchallenges in our globalized society.