Politicization beyond the Merit-system Façade. The Intricate Relationship between Formal and Informal Institutions of the Senior Civil Service Systems in Central and Eastern Europe

Gajduschek, György; Staroňová, Katarína

doi:10.1080/01900692.2021.2009858

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Finally, in civil service (higher public administration) in both countries, wage setting shows discretionary, decentralized and non-transparent elements (Staroňová 2016; Gajduschek and Staroňová 2021). The aim of this decentralized wage setting is to allow for discretionary decision making for political appointees, who have tools to attract highly qualified civil servants from outside of the closed structured system where wages/tariffs are significantly lower, without any link to private sector wages.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most important change was the introduction of flexibility and discretion regarding the variable components of salaries, which constitute a huge proportion of the overall wage. Thus, the system gives ministers and public managers significant discretionary power to conduct institutional reform in their own organizations (Verheijen 2006) and at the same time establishes informal ways for wage setting (Gajduschek and Staroňová 2021; Staroňová and Láštic 2012), with low levels of transparency and predictability of the overall pay.…”

Section: Key Features Of Public Sector Wage Setting In Czechia and Sl...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Arms-length influence: Public sector wage setting and export-led economic growth in Czechia and Slovakia

Kahancová,

Staroňová

2023

European Journal of Industrial Relations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Studies on the drivers of public sector wage setting (PSWS) within the broader political and economic conditions in Central and Eastern Europe are scarce. To fill this gap, the paper questions to what extent the export-led growth model, based on foreign direct investment as driver of economic growth, influenced PSWS in Czechia and Slovakia after the 2008–2009 crisis. The paper provides new evidence of the appropriateness of the growth model literature, integrated by consideration of global production chains integration, for understanding PSWS in CEE conditions. The analysis shows that PSWS followed institutional traditions and established practices that only indirectly related to the countries’ export orientation and integration into global production chains. The indirect growth model impact on PSWS in CEE conditions is channeled through a strong role of the statutory minimum wage, which serves as a wage benchmark both for the export sector and PSWS.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Key Features Of Public Sector Wage Setting In Czechia and Sl...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Arms-length influence: Public sector wage setting and export-led economic growth in Czechia and Slovakia

Kahancová,

Staroňová

2023

European Journal of Industrial Relations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The legacies of the relatively weak institutions of former communist countries provided the grounds for the emergence of political patronage of the recruitment in the civil service and of many policy domains (Kopecký and Spirova, 2011). Studies showed that even though former communist countries adopted reforms for civil service professionalization during the pre-accession to the European Union, politicization increased afterward and politicians found informal practices to appoint loyal subordinates, reward party clientele or extract public resources (Gajduschek and Staroňová, 2023;Tomiċ and Pavloviċ, 2023;Čehovin and Haček, 2015). These practices generated a movement back toward patronage (Peters and Bianchi, 2023;Staroňová and Rybár, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

"Politicization of Public Administration in Romania and its Consequences for Governance in Turbulent Times"

RADU,

RADU

2023

TRAS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The article aims to analyze the level of politicization of civil service in Romania, its goals, and consequences. We adopted a rather narrow perspective on politicization and we concentrated mainly on analyzing the recruitment, promotion, and dismissal of civil servants based on political criteria. The research findings were used to discuss the consequences of politicization on the governance of public institutions during turbulent times. In this regard, we conducted an email-based survey of the civil servants. The majority of the sample was composed of graduates of public administration programs at four major universities in Romania, who work in public institutions. We collected the data between May and November 2023 and we obtained 211 valid questionnaires. We found that appointments based on political criteria lower the work motivation of public employees, and increase the level of incompetence and instability of public institutions. The most affected are public employees in management positions, those who have longer work experience in the public sector, and those who work in public institutions that are part of central administration. Therefore, frequent changes based on political criteria lower the capacity of public institutions to respond to disruptive events by generating a loss of expertise, instability, and discontinuity in policy implementation. However, turbulent times require flexibility and adaptation to unexpected and unpredictable events, and political appointees might be more responsive and cooperative.

show abstract

“…At the same time, Slovakia is considered by many observers to be one of the most politicised countries in the region (Kuperus & Rode, 2016; Meyer‐Sahling & Veen, 2012; Staroňová & Rybář, 2021). This specificity reflects loopholes in CSL as well as possibilities for bypassing the stipulations and wide arrange of informal institutions in play (see Falkner & Treib, 2008; Gajduschek & Staroňová, 2021). This paper studies two processes of civil service reform in Slovakia during the period of 2014–2015 (the formulation of the Strategy on Civil Service Management and the redrafting of the Civil Service Act) in order to reflect on the involvement of an ‘outsider‐academic’ and her strategies developed to achieve policy impact towards higher professionalisation of civil service.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting experts in their place: Achieving policy impact as an outsider‐academic in civil service reforms in Slovakia

Sedlačko

Staroňová

2022

Int J Soc Welfare

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper studies two processes of civil service reform in Slovakia during the period of 2014-2015 in order to reflect on the involvement of an 'outsider-academic' and her strategies to achieve policy impact. The context of such involvement are multi-level processes permeated by political interests and poor on evidence, which favour strategic interests, bargaining and political pressure and contestation (the mode of 'powering') and a mode of legal-based 'puzzling' as opposed to a conceptual, intellectual search for solutions friendly towards outside academics-and achieving only incremental results. We theorise on the success of these strategies (including helping serendipity, throwing ideas to see what sticks, mobilising allies, anchoring a non-binding concept, and finding and developing long-term connections) and sketch analogies and differences between the position of an outsider-academic and a policy entrepreneur. We rely on auto-ethnographic data and documentation of the work of the committees involved and their outputs.

show abstract

Politicization beyond the Merit-system Façade. The Intricate Relationship between Formal and Informal Institutions of the Senior Civil Service Systems in Central and Eastern Europe

Cited by 5 publications

References 41 publications

Arms-length influence: Public sector wage setting and export-led economic growth in Czechia and Slovakia

Arms-length influence: Public sector wage setting and export-led economic growth in Czechia and Slovakia

"Politicization of Public Administration in Romania and its Consequences for Governance in Turbulent Times"

Putting experts in their place: Achieving policy impact as an outsider‐academic in civil service reforms in Slovakia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About