Theoretical models of public administration and patterns of state reform in Greece
| Author | Giorgio Oikonomou,Manto Lampropoulou |
| Published date | 01 March 2018 |
| Date | 01 March 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020852315611219 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
2018, Vol. 84(1) 101–121
!The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852315611219
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International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Article
Theoretical models of public
administration and patterns
of state reform in Greece
Manto Lampropoulou
Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece
Giorgio Oikonomou
University of Athens, Greece
Abstract
Departing from the post-war Weberian-oriented bureaucratic model, the Greek admin-
istrative system has been subjected to several reform programmes with a view to its
modernization. This article aims to explore the main shifts in the course of adminis-
trative change and relate this process with the broader theoretical developments in the
field of public administration. It is argued that the Greek administration has been unable
to follow and take advantage of a vigorously expanded constellation of ideal-types and
hybrid models of state (re)organization. Transformations have diachronically produced
weak results and failed to build a consistent conceptual and operational administrative
paradigm. Even under the current economic contraction and the external conditionality
pressure, there is no strong evidence of a paradigm shift in the administrative pattern
but rather fragmented changes of limited ambit.
Points for practitioners
Despite the fact that the Greek public administration has undergone a series of trans-
formations, interestingly almost none of these reform efforts seem to have incorpo-
rated a particular administrative pattern. This article summarizes old and more recent
theoretical developments on models of administrative reorganization, with a view to
broadening practitioners’ choices in the process of state reform.
Keywords
public administration, governance, Greece, state reform
Corresponding author:
Giorgio Oikonomou, University of Athens, Political Science and Public Administration, 6, Themistokleous Str.,
Athens 106 78, Greece.
Email: nikolitsigr@yahoo.com
Introduction
The theory and practice of public administration include a wide range of schools of
thought, administrative traditions and implementation tools. Taking as a starting
point the traditional model of Weberian bureaucracies, the evolution of administrative
systems, methods and styles followed different paths and was subjected to various
influences deriving from related disciplines, such as political science, economics and
sociology. In brief, the shift in the public bure aucracy towards private sector tech-
niques became a popular trend in the 1980s, moving the study and practice of admin-
istration closer to economic and managerial ideas (Hood, 1991 ; Osborne and Gaebler,
1992; Pollitt, 1990). The economic-managerial era was succ eeded by the theories of
governance in the late 1990s, proposing new modes of c ollaboration between the state
and the social-economic spheres (Peters and Pierre, 1998; Pierre and Peters, 2000).
In recent decades a new branch of thought has gained ground, composed of hybrid
models and revisited approaches to classical administrative patterns, also suggesting a
reconsideration of the dividing line between the public and the private sectors.
The aim of this article is to map a concise set of conceptual approaches to public
administration and to assess their impact on the dynamics of the Greek adminis-
trative system. The analysis attempts to identify when and under what circum-
stances administrative change occurred and what were the driving forces behind
the respective transformations. The central question running throughout the article
is whether the features of the Greek administrative model can be linked with
the existing theory and the macro-trends of state reform. In addition, we explore
the critical turning points in the process of administrative reform, the stability and
linearity of the subsequent shifts and the long-term viability of the policy outcomes.
The findings of the analysis contribute to a better understanding of the reform
effect on a country-specific administrative system that typically appears to have
strong resistance to change, and provide evidence of the possible correlation
(or not) between administrative theory and practice. The Greek case represents
an interesting case study also regarding the thus far weak results of the reforms
undertaken in the wake of the debt crisis, providing hints of potential reform
failure even in forced adjustment policy environments.
Methodologically, the analysis draws on a general categorization of the theor-
etical approaches to public administration covering: (i) the traditional administra-
tive models, (ii) the economic and managerial patterns, (iii) the theories of
governance, and (iv) the ‘hybrid’ models. These theoretical strands are then
linked with the process of administrative change in Greece, discerning three
phases of evolution: (i) the post-war decades, (ii) the mid-1990s and the 2000s,
and (iii) the recent years of the debt/fiscal crisis. With a view to test the hypothesis
of a ‘paradigm shift’ in the national administrative model, we investigate whether
the misfits between domestic administrative capacity and supranational modern-
ization trends can induce change. By the term ‘paradigm shift’ we mean a thorough
revision of the dominant administrative pattern, in both its normative and practical
dimensions, that would suggest a move towards new organizational and func-
tional standards. This definition embraces not only shifts between existing ideal
102 International Review of Administrative Sciences 84(1)
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