Administrative reform in Portugal: problems and prospects
| Author | J.A. Oliveira Rocha,Joaquim Filipe Ferraz Esteves de Araujo |
| Date | 01 December 2007 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852307083461 |
| Published date | 01 December 2007 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Administrative reform in Portugal: problems and prospects
J.A. Oliveira Rocha and Joaquim Filipe Ferraz Esteves de Araújo
Abstract
Administrative reform has been an important issue for several decades in Western
countries. Like other Western countries, Portugal developed an increasing interest
in administrative reform. This article is a contemporary analysis of Portuguese
administrative reform. It introduces the Portuguese system and outlines its major
features. Briefly stated, the decrease in State expenditure is represented by the
proletarization of the middle class that lives off the State; there is an increase in
party clientelism, since the old systems based on legal statutes are subject to
flexibilization; and, finally, privatizations increase economic monopolies because
the regulatory agencies do not work. This means that if this therapy was to be
applied to small countries like Portugal, it could have serious consequences for
Europe.
Points for practitioners
The article reflects the consequences of New Public Management when applied
to a traditional bureaucracy. The introduction of administrative reform is more dif-
ficult in legal systems such as Portugal. So practitioners and politicians can learn
from this case study when dealing with reforms in similar systems.
Keywords: administrative reform, modernization, New Public Management,
political system, Portugal, public administration
Introduction
Administrative reform has been an important issue over recent decades in Western
countries. Governments from all political spectrums aimed to place a renewed
J.A. Oliveira Rocha and Joaquim Filipe Ferraz Esteves de Araújo are members of the University
of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
Copyright © 2007 IIAS, SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore)
Vol 73(4):583–596 [DOI:10.1177/0020852307083461]
584 International Review of Administrative Sciences 73(4)
emphasis on the the functioning of public service to deal with the increasing respon-
sibilities of government. The creation of new organizations and the introduction of
managerial rationality into public services, replacing the traditional approach to
management, were a widespread trend in the administrative reform. For instance, the
influence of New Public Management (NPM) on administrative reform was a wide-
spread phenomenon and has found different expressions in different governments.
The idea that private management is better than public management permeated the
reforms and created the opportunity for new techniques and models of manage-
ment, some of them originating from the private sector, to be introduced into public
services.
Like other Western countries, Portugal developed an increasing interest in admin-
istrative reform. According to the OECD (1996), the way the country is dealing with
public management reform can be described as a ‘movement’, where, ‘regardless of
the political changes and party lines’ (OECD, 1996), there is a general orientation
towards the development of a new administrative system. Indeed, administrative
reform has been on the political agenda since 1974 (Araújo, 2001; 2002; Rocha,
2001), and it was an important issue in recent years. There have been international,
national and internal pressures for change in the Portuguese public administration.
These pressures led the reform agenda to set up goals and also influenced the
different ways in which change was approached. Hence, it is worth analysing how
the administrative reform evolved over time, and what the present challenges faced
by reformers are. Portugal has been regarded by some scholars as a case study with-
in the Southern countries of Europe, having particular characteristics which deserve
detailed analysis. From the academic point of view, it is relevant to understand the
evolution of the Portuguese public administration and the influence of New Public
Management ideas, in particular as far as its structure and functioning are concerned.
This article is a contemporary analysis of Portuguese administrative reform. It intro-
duces the Portuguese system and outlines its major features, presenting an analysis
of the Portuguese administrative reform over recent decades.
The foundations of the Portuguese public administration
The most influential event of the Portuguese public administration was perhaps the
reform of 1832, initiated by Mouzinho da Silveira,1 who imported the Napoleonic
administration and the continental European administrative law. However, this was
not adjusted to the political, economic and social developments of that time. The
collapse of the monarchy and the rupture between church and state represented the
destruction of all the traditional links between the predominantly rural Portuguese
population and the national government. The growing gap was not reduced by new
mechanisms like the party system that aimed at mobilizing the citizenry, and the rural
majority and political parties, in particular, failed to fill this void. Through the traditional
system of patron–client relationships, participation was almost without mass
mobilization. The result was a country with two systems: the old traditional system,
which was deeply rooted in Portuguese traditional and rural society; and the new and
modernized institutions established by the law. This conflict between what Riggs
(1964: 20–30) called ‘prismatic societies’ has remained until the present.
Rocha and Araújo Administrative reform in Portugal 585
The parliamentary government established in 1822 was inadequate for a country
in which traditionalism was mixed with modernism. In spite of new institutions and
the rationalization of administrative procedures, paternalistic relationships sustained
the old practices and privileges. Directorates and public services kept their informal
framework based upon Catholic values that stressed personalism and paternalism.
On the other hand, during this quiescent period (which lasted from the liberal consti-
tution of 1822 until the Salazar regime in 1926), there were constant shifts in the
administrative structure from centralized to decentralized organizations. From 1832
until 1900 there were ten administrative codes, each one representing a shift con-
cerned with centralization or decentralization. This instability weakened the credibility
of change and reinforced the power and role of civil servants within the political
system. Nonetheless, this reform has been fully rendered formal, except for the
administrative division. Thus, and although the liberal constitutions have anticipated
the recruitment of staff on the basis of public competition, it was only in 1859 that
the competition mechanism was generalized within all public services and ministry.
However, according to Machado (2000), favouritism practices and political protec-
tionism did not stop. As for the ruling classes, the spoils system was established, i.e.
positions were granted exclusively on the basis of politicians’ willingness. Finally,
during most of the 19th century, the rule of local administration nomination was
used, and yet it lost the autonomy it had enjoyed throughout the first centuries of the
foundation of the Portuguese state. This political system was restructured by the
dictatorial regime (1926–74), the so-called ‘Estado Novo’/New State.
The New State (‘Estado Novo’) and public administration
(1926–74)
The New State rationalized the administration by creating the Inspecção Geral de
Finanças (Finance General Inspection), the Reorganization of the Court of Accounts
and the Reform of Public Accounting. The scope of the reform focused upon the
rationalization of structures, the establishment of strict processes of fiscal account-
ability and the purge of untrustworthy civil servants, reducing patronage and ‘per-
sonalistic political party influence’ (Graham, 1975: 14). The aim of the first general
reform of the civil service career system was to stop administrative chaos in the
Portuguese administrative system (Felismino, 1954: 856), to establish a basis for
strong government and to impose strict controls on expenditure by departments and
the financing of public programmes, together with the centralization of departments
(Carapeto and Fonseca, 2005). Salazar recognized the necessity of improving the
procedures of the administrative apparatus. The previous period of inaction had not
permitted any change in the system (Graham, 1983).
Insofar as the public administration is concerned, it was restructured by means of
the Decree No. 26115, 23 November 1935. As for the categories structure and the
salary system, this Decree adopted a Weberian line of reasoning. So, the Portuguese
civil service maintained characteristics of the old world, such as hierarchy, formality,
legality and class consciousness. This formalism, its rigidity and the hierarchies serve
as means to maintain the status quo and hold the lower class in check. It is a classic
bureaucratic system.
586 International Review of Administrative Sciences 73(4)
In sum, bureaucracy, paper work, administrative regulations, all serve to keep the
masses in place, to freeze society and permit only those changes approved by the
state (Graham, 1975). To complete the system, the regime ruled out party politics
and interest group competition. The National Union (União Nacional) was the only
legally permitted party, but it was more of a bureaucratic appendage of the regime
than a real political party, which helped to implement governmental decisions. It was
also a...
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