Getting on track: civil service reform in post-communist Hungary

Abstract

This article explains Hungary's status as a front-runner of civil service reform in post-communist Europe and assesses the consequences of the first reform outcomes for the institutionalization of the politics-administration nexus. It examines the degree of formal politicization of the ministerial civil service inherent in the Civil Service Act of 1992 and argues that the formal legal framework provides important instruments for political intervention in civil service policy. Civil service reform had been on the agenda for almost a decade prior to the regime change, creating strong proponents of reform. The 1992 Act institutionalized a formally politicized politics-administration nexus and has shaped the practice of ministerial personnel policy and subsequent civil service reforms until 2001. The ideological divide in the party system and the absence of a 'tolerant policy entrepreneur' are likely to slow down the process of further civil service reform, while high levels of formal politicization are preserved.