Politically-driven public administration or co-creation? On the possibility of modernizing public services in rural Hungary

Abstract

IMPACT This article reports an empirical study of a pilot programme which aimed to help local initiatives to co-create services for supporting household economic activities in disadvantaged rural regions of Hungary. The authors show how local governments—functioning within centralized power structures—can answer the challenges of public service modernization. They also assess to what extent and in which areas leaders, mentors and service users are open to new and innovative forms of work.