Editorial
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230130402 |
| Published date | 01 October 1993 |
| Date | 01 October 1993 |
| Author | Paul Collins |
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION AND
DEVELOPMENT, VOL. 13,319-322 (1993)
EDITORIAL
Centrally-planned and erstwhile centrally-planned economies in Africa, Asia, Europe
and Latin America are variously reforming their systems of production and exchange,
sometimes in response to a breakdown in or declining performance of existing models
and sometimes in consequence of the need to meet the challenges of a changing
global economic environment. The developments that are taking place pose great
challenges for governments in managing the process of transition as well as for
donors in supporting the bold initiatives underway.
This collection of essays examines selected experiences in managing the transition
from the centrally-planned to the more market-oriented economy. A common feature
of most of the countries covered has been the process whereunder a programme
which started out as essentially one designed to address the needs of economic liberali-
sation, renewed growth or industrialisation has developed into something more
broadly focused on the tasks of restructuring the public sector institutions.
An opening essay reviews the endeavours of Eastern Europe, CIS and selected
countries of other regions in three critical areas of state sector institutional reform:
policy making capacities and coordination, civil service legislation and reform and
civil service training and re-training. Lessons are drawn from international technical
cooperation projects being undertaken by both bilateral and multilateral donors
in a variety of national contexts. Collectively, these experiences point towards the
need for a strategic approach, emphasising interdependence between structural and
legal reform on the one hand and institutional capacity building on the other. Only
through such an approach can sustainability be achieved and the risks of social
unrest and ‘policy reversal’ minimised. Critical to this is the management of the
transition per se,
as
distinct from its particular policy or programme components.
In the country studies that follow, it can be seen how in reality the circumstances
in which reforms are taking place differ widely in terms of the impetus for change
(e.g., whether the reforms are internally or externally induced or whether they stem
from a need for fresh capital or new technology). China’s current administrative
reforms have been driven by the needs of its economic development policies, and
emphasise decentralisation, organisational restructuring and civil service professiona-
lisation. Mongolia’s reforms reflect an interplay of internal and external factors.
Although the break
up
of the USSR on which Mongolia was
so
dependent was
of key significance, Mongolia-the longest standing socialist economy after the
USSR-was undertaking its own reform programme long before ‘glassnost’. The
same applies to Vietnam where
doi
moi
and a number of other reform experiments
have again been taking place for some time as part of an internal process of reform.
The Vietnamese case brings out another important contextual point: the structure
of the economy and the nature of the central planning system. As Brian van Arkadie
illustrates, central planning was a brief interlude in Vietnam and did not follow
in any rigid way the Soviet model. Hence Vietnam has been able to introduce its
macro-economic and institutional reforms with impressive speed. The Cuban and
0271-2075/93/040319-04$07.00
0
1993
by
John
Wiley
&
Sons,
Ltd.
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