Reinventing Government in Transition Economies: The New Public Administration in Eastern Europe
| Author | Robert Jones |
| Published date | 01 March 1995 |
| Date | 01 March 1995 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/014473949501500101 |
| Published By | Sage Publications, Inc. |
Teaching Public Administration: Spring, 1995,
Vol.
xv,
No.1,
pp
1-18
Reinventing Government in Transition Economies: The
New
Public Administration in Eastern Europe
ROBERT JONES
Sheffield Hallam University
There is surely an element
of
farce in the fate
of
one
of
Marxism's most widely
known prognoses concerning systemic change in post-revolutionary societies: the
doctrine
of
the 'withering away
of
the state' under communism. This chiliastic doctrine
was a central tenet
of
Soviet Marxist ideology, albeit on the level
of
grandiloquent
theorising rather than
of
actual policy: in practice, communist rulers everywhere sought
to
increase state power rather than abolish it. Nevertheless, nothing in the Marxist
canon would have led us to the conclusion that the relegation
of
the communist state
machine
to
the dustbin
of
history would occur through 'capitalist restoration'. In the
wake
of
this,
we
have to ask what role the state should assume in the fledgling market
economies
of
Eastern Europe?
Transition strategies in the region have centred on the expansion and nurturing
of
the
private sector and the concomitant reduction
of
the state's role in economic and social
affairs. The run-down
of
the state sector in Eastern Europe has been part
of
the process
of
'creative destruction'
of
communist institutions, a process which is rightly viewed
as a necessary concomitant
of
systemic reform. However, in the writer's view, there
is also a need for a parallel process
of
creative construction with regard to this sector.
Although some aspects
of
public sector reform have been addressed these have been
'ad
hoc' responses
to
specific problems rather than part
of
a co-ordinated strategy, still
less a product
of
a coherent 'philosophy'
of
government.
Some major problems in Eastern Europe's transition process can be at least partly
attributed to administrative incapacities. Examples
of
these, spanning all stages
of
the
policy process, abound: the problems encountered by governments in collecting state
revenues and in balancing budgets for example, and the widespread delays in the
formulation and implementation
of
privatisation programmes. Each
of
these problems
contributes
to
a potentially dangerous 'expectations gap' in the region.
Teaching Public Administration
The two main themes developed here are flrst, that reform
of
the state sector, and in
particular the development
of
a new system
of
public administration appropriate to
economies in transition, is urgently needed and should be regarded as a central aspect
of
systemic reform in Eastern Europe and secondly, that the Western paradigm shift
in relation to the role and functions
of
government and public services could well
contain valuable lessons for the region.
A major paradox
of
the reform process is that transition to a
free
enterprise system
based on private ownership necessitates the development
of
a sizeable, vigorous,
efficient and effective state sector. Even
if
a fully functioning market economy was to
be
achieved overnight, there would still be a need for public services, as there is in all
developed market economies: the 'night-watchman' or 'negative' state exists in pure
form only in economics textbooks. However, the very nature
of
the transition process
in
Eastern Europe, burdened with the legacies
of
the command economy, provides
additional reasons
for
the development
of
a positive, interventionist or active state. The
state should not be simply rolled back, but should transform and redirect its activities.
A central premise
of
this article
is
that neglect
of
public sector reform could result in
policy failure at the formulation and implementation stages.
This article is, emphatically, not a plea for some kind
of
systemic hybridisation or
'third way' between the command and free market economies: models which seek to
graft a market system onto a centrally planned system have been rightly rejected by
the 'fast track' reformers. A voluble critic
of
'third way' alternatives, Vaclav Klaus,
Prime Minister
of
the Czech Republic, has warned the region to beware
of
'ideological
infiltration' by Western peddlers
of
discredited interventionist or market socialist
doctrines, seeking to offload their dubious wares onto Eastern Europe. Klaus asserts
that the 'third way' is the quickest route to the Third World (Klaus, 1992, pp 73-75).
Further, the article is not an attempt to smuggle
in
market socialism by the Western
door, nor a plea to slow down the reform process. The ideas presented here are aimed
at facilitating the transition to the market, and could lead to the extension
of
market
principles to the state sector: more haste in creating appropriate public sector
administrative systems should speed up the realisation
of
the market-oriented goals
of
'fast track' reformers, who,
in
the writer's view, have presented an incomplete
transition agenda.
Pioneering work in raising the profile
of
the state sector in the transition process has
already been undertaken, notably by Rice (1992), Konig (1992) and Hesse (1993).
Rice, with a background in the World Bank's research department, questions the
capacity
of
governments
in
the transition countries to either design or implement
effective reform strategies and raises the issue
of
the 'domain'
of
government (Rice,
1992). He offers many useful and interesting ideas for dealing with these deflciencies
2
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