Public Administration Values: A Study of Conformity Between National Traditions Outside and Inside Transnational Networks.

Public administrations are key policy actors. Within the European integration framework, transnational mutual learning can be a powerful tool of public policy change via the acquisition or modification of administrative values. The goal of this paper is to assess whether the principles and features of national administrative traditions are applied in public administration practice in Europe, in a context of transnational administrative cooperation where public servants exchange policy ideas and best practices within specific policy areas. In order to provide this evaluation, my theoretical benchmark and point of departure will be represented by the features of national traditions as detailed in previous academic studies of public administration theory and praxis. The history of public administration ideas can also be interpreted as a counter-history of public administration practice, since principles are often stated starting from perceived needs. It is therefore of interest to understand whether these principles actually ended up being applied and to what extent the features of public servants’ professional identities are consistent with their respective administrative background even in transnational mutual learning contexts. On the theoretical side, the research tools to elaborate this assessment will consist in selected writings on public servants’ identities, while on the administrative practice level the concretization of public servants’ values has been assessed via an extensive study of transnational cooperation networks inter alia resting upon the analysis of documents made public by the European Commission, concerning transnational activities that range from joint projects to informal exchanges of best practices.