LKY presentation

Europeanisation:

The reorientation or reshaping of politics and administration in the domestic arena in ways that reflect the structures, policies, and practices advanced through the EU system of governance

Bache and Jordan: 2006, p.30

Research question:

What are the implications of EU integration for national civil service systems in terms of

• their organisational design
• their personnel systems
• the scope to contain the potential for official dominance in relation to
• political leaders, and
• external institutions?

Comparative Civil Service Systems:

Beyond the Europeanisation

of National Bureaucracies

Civil service systems:

Mediating institutions that mobilise human resources in the service of the affairs of the state in a given territory

Bekke et al., 1996

Dr. Caspar F. van den Berg

Leiden University

Some quick comparative figures

Data:

- Interviews: N=45

- Online survey: N=822

- Secondary analysis of qualitative and quantitative data

New research question:

Programme

• Civil service systems and their Europeanisation

• The Rise of "New Political Governance"?

• Agenda for comparative research: The room for an a-political civil service

An IIAS-funded international study-group, starting this fall

How to

• employ, train and retain public service leaders with the right skill sets and aptitude,

while

• upholding an impartial, merit-based civil service to serve the public interest?

New Political Governance (Aucoin, 2012)

An ideal-typical form of governance,

contrary to the public interest

Drivers for the rise of NPG:

-Mass media and communications

-Greater transparency and openness

- Audit explosion

- Competition in the political marketplace

-Electoral volatility and polarization

Criticism on NPG:

- What is fundamentally new? (powerful prime ministers, special advisers have always existed)

- Evidence that NPG takes place invariably?

- NPG really the new norm, or just aberrations of the norm? Doesn't impartiality remain the official doctrine?

- Political appointees can also protect the non-partisan role of officials

Main features:

1.The integration of executive governance and the continuous campaign

2. Partisan-political staff as a third force in governance and public administration

3. A personal-politicizing of appointment to the senior public service

4. An assumption that public service loyalty to and support of the gvt means being promiscuously partisan

Tradition of politicised entourage

Yes

No

To what extent can NPG be found beyond Anglo-Saxon countries?

How useful is the NPG ideal-type for understanding change beyond Anglo-Saxon systems?

What explains differences in the degree to which NPG manifests itself?

Can constraints (e.g. codes of ethics, bureaucratic culture, transparency provisions, and the law) help to limit inappropriate displays of partisanship by officials?

The Netherlands

Consensus system

Belgium

4 x 50 respondents;

structured interviews and

Q-sort methodology

France

The United Kingdom

Majoritarian system

(cc) image by anemoneprojectors on Flickr

Thank You!

cberg@fsw.leidenuniv.nl

www.socialsciences.leiden.edu/publicadministration/organisation/faculty-staff/berg.html#contact

casparvandenberg

casparvdberg