Reforming the public administration: The role of crisis and the power of bureaucracy

The need to balance austerity with growth policies has put government efficiency high on the economic policy agenda in Europe. Administrative reforms that boost the internal efficiency of bureaucracy can alleviate the trade-off between consolidation and public service provision. Against such a backd...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European Journal of Political Economy 2017-06, Vol.48, p.128-143
Main Authors: Asatryan, Zareh, Heinemann, Friedrich, Pitlik, Hans
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Austerity policy
Bureaucracy
Cohesion policy
Crises
Economic policy
Euro-crisis
Expenditures
Political economy
Power
Public administration
Public sector efficiency
Reforms
Theory of bureaucracy
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Summary:The need to balance austerity with growth policies has put government efficiency high on the economic policy agenda in Europe. Administrative reforms that boost the internal efficiency of bureaucracy can alleviate the trade-off between consolidation and public service provision. Against such a backdrop, this paper constructs (and makes available) a novel reform indicator to explore the determinants of public administration reforms for a panel of EU countries. The findings support political-economic reasoning: An economic and fiscal crisis is a potent catalyst for reforms, but a powerful bureaucracy constrains the opportunities of a crisis to promote reform. Furthermore, there is some suggestive evidence for horizontal learning from other EU countries, and for vertical learning associated with a particular type of EU cohesion spending. •This paper constructs a new measure of reform-activity in public administration.•The data is for EU Member States in the 2000–2012 and is available for download.•The evidence shows that economic and fiscal crises are a potent catalyst for reforms.•However, powerful bureaucracies can effectively block public administration reforms.
ISSN:0176-2680
1873-5703
DOI:10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2016.08.004