Public Administration Education in a Legalistic Setting: New Tendencies in Hungarian Public Administration and Training

Abstract

AbstractTh e article examines the recent developments in public service training in Hungary and draws conclusions for the future. Hungary is considered to be part of the legalistic culture of European PA; therefore we analyze the connection between the legalistic approach as a cultural environment of PA practice and PA education as an influential factor of changing this environment. Th e empirical part of the research contains three elements: analysis of the professional training of civil service, the content of PA university training and the composition of professions within the central civil service. Th e empirical findings on these three dimensions are analyzed in light of recent structural changes of PA university education and professional training. Under a Government Decree issued in 2012, the National University of Public Services was appointed by the Government to be in charge of PA education and training. Th e university itself was recently created by the merger of law enforcement, military and civil PA universities (academies). Th is structural change can be characterized by centralization and, to a certain extent, simplification, too. Th e restructuring of PA training is completed by the concept of the Government making the fields of public service permeable, open to each other. Th e university itself is a test field for this concept since police and military students have the opportunity to study civil PA courses. Th e need for this kind of cross-learning is supported by the new phenomenon that defense and policing are gradually becoming more civilian in their character, while traditional training in these fields must undergo serious changes too. Although the article states that the basic framework of public administration education - as a major driver of public administration culture - is still dominantly legalistic, it also introduces the ways in which the new public-administration education system has tried to change the content of its degree programs and how it has attempted to have an impact on the entire public-administrative system to move from procedural orientation to a more solution-oriented mindset.