Making sense of post-communist central administration: modernization, Europeanization or Latinization?

Abstract

Two main perspectives dominate in the study of central state administration in post-communist CEE: modernization and Europeanization. These perspectives can be characterized with reference to main drivers of administrative change: developmental objectives; the conceptualization of current institutional arrangements; and the decisive actor constellations that are thought to shape administrative trajectories. Modernization and Europeanization capture important aspects of the development of post-communist public administration; but they also suffer from limitations in their descriptive, conceptual and explanatory power. Against this background, it is proposed to enrich the study of public administration in CEE by seeking inspiration from comparative public administration, especially as it applies to southern Europe and Latin America. Such a broadening of the analytical purview may, in particular, help to redirect attention to the substantive openness of administrative transition and to the growing diversity of institutional arrangements in the region.