THE FUTURE OF PORTUGUESE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND A NEW AGENDA FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SCIENCES IN THE 21st CENTURY
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2006.00008.x |
| Author | LUÍS V. TAVARES,ANDRÉ A. ALVES |
| Published date | 01 June 2006 |
| Date | 01 June 2006 |
Public Administration Vol. 84, No. 2, 2006 (389–406)
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2006, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street,
Malden, MA 02148, USA.
THE FUTURE OF PORTUGUESE PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION AND A NEW AGENDA FOR
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SCIENCES IN THE
21st CENTURY
LUÍS V . TAVARES AND ANDRÉ A . ALVES
This paper addresses the changing role of the Portuguese state, the present priority
assigned to the process of reform and the new challenges to be overcome by public
administration. Such processes are demanding a new agenda for education and
research in public administration sciences, shifting from the public law paradigm to
an interdisciplinary problem-solving approach and giving special attention to 10 key
areas of study, which we describe in the fi nal section of the paper. It should be noted
here that the opinions expressed in this paper do not necessarily refl ect the position
of their institutions.
INTRODUCTION
Portugal is perceived internationally as a relatively small, homogeneous
country, with a peripheral status within Europe but a pivotal position in
terms of Atlantic and African relations. Portugal, a country of approximately
ten million inhabitants, was traditionally a country of emigration. Only re-
cently has this trend been reversed and there has been an infl ux of immi-
grants, predominantly from former African colonies, Brazil and, in recent
years, Eastern Europe. Administratively, Portugal operates by means a
centralized national structure. At the local level, municipalities are subdi-
vided into smaller administrative units known as freguesias . Despite some
decentralization initiatives over the last two decades, the national gov-
ernment continues to centralize an wide range of functions, resulting in
extremely limited local autonomy in services such as education, health and
transportation. The Azores and Madeira archipelagos, with their own
autonomous regional administrative and political systems, are the only
exceptions to this pattern.
The administrative sciences in Portugal refl ect its public administration
culture. The paper will describe the evolution in public administration
thought as well as educational and training methods and there will be par-
ticular emphasis given to implications for the current situation regarding
Luís V. Tavares is President of the National Institute of Public Administration (INA) and Professor of
Systems and Management at IST, the Technical University of Lisbon. André A. Alves is a member of
the Center for the Study of Governance and Public Policy at the University of Aveiro and a PhD
candidate in Government at the London School of Economics.
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2006 Public Administration Vol. 84, No. 2, 2006 (389–406)
390 LUÍS V. TAVARES AND ANDRÉ A. ALVES
Portuguese public administration. Since it is impossible to understand the
prevailing paradigm of administrative science without being aware of the
context within which it has been developed, the main trends in the evolution
of Portuguese public administration culture will be discussed, focusing
mainly on the last three decades (the period corresponding to the existence
of democratic government following the 1974 revolution).
THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE STATE
From revolution to democratic institutionalization
The 30 years period spanning 1974 to 2004 corresponds to the fi rst three
decades of democratic government following the 1974 revolution that ended
almost half a century of authoritarian rule in Portugal: a period known as
the Estado Novo (the New State). The prevailing model that existed before
1974 can best be described as a corporatist state, where the system of public
administration was largely conceived as an instrument of bureaucratic con-
trol placed at the service of the political regime ( Rocha 2001 ).
The contemporary process of administrative modernization in Portugal
cannot be understood without reference to the political, economical and so-
cial context that emerged after the 1974 revolution ( Ginestal 2004 ). Following
the 1974 revolution, large sectors of the economy were nationalized with the
explicit objective of dismantling and extinguishing all larger Portuguese eco-
nomic conglomerates and establishing government control in all sectors that
were considered ‘ strategic ’ , including banking and insurance, heavy indus-
try, chemicals, energy and transportation (Franco 1994). At the same time,
starting also in 1974, decolonization led to the return of about 600 000
Portuguese citizens who had lived in the former colonies. This fl ux was
largely responsible for a population growth rate of over 2.5 per cent in 1974
and 4.5 per cent in 1975 ( Pinto 1994 ). Among the Portuguese citizens who
returned from the former colonies there were several tens of thousands of
civil servants who had, for the most part, to be integrated into the existing
administrative system.
Portugal has been a member of the European Union since 1986 and in 1989
a revision of the 1976 Constitution made possible the beginning of a process
of re-privatization of many nationalized companies. This movement towards
a system of economic organization where market processes play a more
signifi cant role, was developed throughout the 1990s and the process is still
ongoing. Both the reduction of the degree of direct governmental interven-
tion in the economy and the attempts to introduce NPM reforms in public
administration were certainly infl uenced by these prevailing international
trends but important obstacles have delayed the clarifi cation of the role of
the state and the modernization of public administration. There is no doubt
that such obstacles are associated with political instability (there have been
17 governments in less than 30 years) and to a strong conservative culture
of public institutions. The drastic nationalization programme undertaken in
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