Public administration education in a continental European legalistic setting
| Date | 01 September 2014 |
| Published date | 01 September 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0144739413502217 |
| Author | Márton Gellén |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Public administration
education in a
continental European
legalistic setting: the
Hungarian case
Ma
´rton Gelle
´n
National University of Public Services, Budapest, Hungary
Abstract
The Trans-European Dialogue in 2013 was dedicated to the revisiting of the research
undertaken by Gyo
¨rgy Hajnal in 2003 (Hajnal, 2003) on public administration education
in Europe. As part of the preparations to the conference, Hajnal also revisited his
research after 10 years. The findings presented on the conference offer a theoretical
framework to analyze the Hungarian case of public administration education. The claim
is that the Hungarian public administration culture is still part of the ‘‘legalistic’’ model
within the discipline. This article provides an analysis on the current institutional settings
of public administrative education and also a content analysis on the curriculum of BA
and MA courses in order to determine if Hajnal’s 2013 findings are still valid. In order
to verify Hajnal’s 2013 findings, the article examines the contents of the current public
administration programs and also formulates the latest steps for further development. In
addition, the article offers an outline on being ‘‘legalistic’’ in terms of public administration
education. Although the article states that the basic framework of public administration
education – as a major driver of public administration culture – is still dominantly lega-
listic. It also introduces the ways in which the new public administration education sys-
tem have tried to change the content of its degree programs and how it has tried to have
an impact on the entire public administrative system to move from procedural orienta-
tion to a more solution-oriented mindset.
Keywords
legalistic education, law, law and public administration, transition countries, regime
change, Central and Eastern Europe, economic crisis
Corresponding author:
Ma
´rton Gelle
´n, National University of Public Service, Hunga
´ria Krt. 9–11, Budapest 1101, Hungary.
Email: gellen.marton@uni-nke.hu
Teaching Public Administration
2014, Vol. 32(2) 111–126
ªThe Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/0144739413502217
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Theoretical background: Revisiting Hajnal’s findings after
10 years
The 6th Trans-European Dialogue (TED) conference in Potsdam, jointly organized by
IIAS-EGPA (International Institute of Administrative Sciences – European Group of
Public Administration) and NISPA CEE (Network of Institutes and Schools of Public
Administration in Central and Eastern Europe), was partly dedicated to revisiting
Gyo¨rgy Hajnal’s findings after a 10-year period. Both his 2003 study and the 2013 one
– among other important findings on clusters in Public Administration (PA) education –
enhanced that Hungarian PA education belongs to the ‘‘legalistic’’cluster within Europe.
The 2013 research – delivered by Hajnal at TED 6 – adds to this finding that the situation
has remained the same throughout the past 10 years. According to Hajnal (Hajnal, 2013),
Hungary and Germany forming the ‘‘legalistic’’ cluster did not change their orientation
regarding PA education, while other countries in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)
region like Slovakia, Slovenia or Romania, which belong to other PA education clusters
with either policy or management orientation, slightly changed the content of their PA
education according to international trends.
The analysis begins with a brief institutional history. This might not be important in a
country like Germany where a couple of dozen institutions provide PA education. Since
the institutional composition of Hungarian PA education is rather monolithic, it has a
high significance regarding what happens inside the incumbent institution. To formulate
it in a different way: the institutional changes affecting an institution that has a national
monopoly are, per se substantial changes within the realm of PA education.
What is ‘‘legalistic’’ PA?
According to my understanding, a legalistic approach in itself is not inferior to a more
political or to a more managerial approach in PA education. Especially in a country
where the communist dictatorship imprinted the fear from the reigning iniuria into the
hearts and minds of the people, being ‘‘legalistic’’ appears to be positive. It has a the-
oretical importance to detach ‘‘legalistic’’ PA culture from ‘‘legalistic’’ PA education. In
practice, these notions are deeply interwoven as students move from education to PA
practice and practitioners tend to take part in PA education. In the following, I analyze
the concept of law in PA practice in Hungary and later on I provide an analysis on being
‘‘legalistic’’ in PA education.
The concept on the function of law within PA
Hungarian PA theory is widely divided on the definition of law and on the definition of
PA. According to this article however, the theoretical nuances have no significance.
What I intend to focus on is the public sentiment of the civil service of what the notions
of law and PA are. Without empirical research within the civil service, it can be rea-
sonably assumed that the Basic PA coursebook
2
has the most significant impact on the
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