Transformation of the state apparatus and development of public administration in the former ’Eastern Block’ of Europe has not been simple nor straightforward. Challenges are related to the legacy of former Soviet as well as to historically develop administrative practices, but also to ideas of new public management developed in the context of consolidated democracies and regulated market capitalism. The question guiding this paper is, if different traditions and new ideas mix into new ‘ways of administration’, or if country specific traditions tend to overrule new ideas?
Although there does not exist a common European understanding or practice of public administration within the European Union, public administrations have in all new Central and East European member states been monitored by the EU Commission in order to enhance efficiency. According to insights from theories on policy transfer (Bartlett, 1990; Dolowitz & Marsch, 2000), Europeanization (Schmidt, 2010, Radaelli, 2003) and neo-institutionalism (March & Olson, 1989) domestic responses will probably not follow identical patterns. On the contrary, different choices in the organisation of public administration and thus in civil servants’ identities are expected both when looking at different countries and into different sectors.
Empirically the paper is based on a survey conducted by the authors between April and June this year among civil servants in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Data will include responses from 1500 civil servants. The choice of the three Baltic States follows the logic of a ‘most-similar-system’-design facilitating both cross-country and cross-sector comparison. In the analysis we identify the concrete organization of public administration and civil servant identity as developed during the 20 years of transition from communism and toward regulated market capitalism and evaluate it against the norms of continental public administration traditions and new public management.
