The 21st NISPAcee Annual Conference
"Regionalisation
and Inter-regional Cooperation”
May 16-18, 2013, Belgrade, Serbia
The 21st NISPAcee Annual Conference, organised in
co-operation with the Faculty of Organisational Sciences, University of
Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, was attended by 220 participants from 30 countries
worldwide. This included 18 CEE countries covered by NISPAcee’s institutional
membership.
NISPAcee would like to thank the local organisers, the
University of Belgrade, represented by its Dean of the Faculty of
Organisational Sciences, Prof. Drakulic Mirjana, and other colleagues, for the
excellent organisation of the conference, financial support and preparation of
the social events, which created a friendly and pleasant atmosphere for
conference participants.
NISPAcee would also like to thank to the programme
coordinators of the conference sessions and working groups for their
contributions to the high scientific and academic value of the entire event.
For the third time, NISPAcee included special
Pre-conference Programmes for Young Researchers: Master Class "How to improve
your paper”. The Master Class was conducted by Professor Dr. Michiel de Vries,
Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
The conference was opened with welcoming and opening
speeches given by representatives of NISPAcee, the University of Belgrade,
Serbian Ministry of Justice and Administration, EAPAA, EGPA, UN DESA, IASIA,
ASPA, NASPAA. The conference programme consisted of working sessions on the
main conference theme, general sessions, meetings of research working groups,
EAPAA sessions, ASPA and ReSPA panels, and Panels on new projects, which
enriched the programme of the conference with new information, and a
presentation of new initiatives and opportunities for collaboration with
external organisations, as well as within NISPAcee. In addition to the WGs,
NISPAcee organised special sessions focusing on the current hot topics of PA
practice in CEE to be explored and discussed with practitioners - Colloquium
for Practitioners.
Main conference theme sessions
Chairs:
Marius Profiroiu, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies,
Romania
Ilona Palne Kovacs, Institute of Regional Studies,
Research Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Science
The submitted abstracts have been grouped into two
sessions. The first one dealt with regional policy from different aspects and
scales. Three papers were presented. Nico Groenendijk from Twente University
(The Netherlands) introduced the macro-regional movements within and beyond the
EU borders regarding them as a means for the further integration of regions and
countries.
Aleksander Noworol from the Jagiellonian University,
Poland, held a theoretical presentation on partnership organisations, motivated
by the European cohesion policy, emphasising the role of this principle in
regional development. Györgyi Nyikos, National University of Public Service,
Hungary, dealt with the new, contradictory challenges of cohesion policy,
showing the main paradox of the parallel aim of competitiveness and solidarity.
The second session focused mostly on public
administration at regional level. Svetlana Safina introduced the process of
regionalisation in the Russian Federation from the aspect of the Bashkir
constitutional process. It was interesting to compare the views on the same
topic in the next paper by Alexey Barabashev, Higher School of Economics,
Russian Federation, who dealt with the regional deconcentration of Russian
presidential apparatuses. The third paper by Aleksander Markovic (co-authors
Marko Vulic, Bozidar Radenkovic and Labus Aleksandra), Belgrade University, was
on social networking in the field of e-government services.
The final plenary session was also devoted to the topic
of regionalism. In a framework of panel discussions the coordinators, Marius
Profiroiu and Ilona Pálné Kovács, asked the participants about the regional reforms
implemented or planned in their countries.The participants Calin Hintea (Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj), Slobodan
Dujic (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), Kakha Shengelia (Caucasus
University, Georgia) and Györgyi Nyikos (Hungary) outlined the very diverse
conditions and ambitions of regionalisation which are present or even absent in
these countries, providing national evidence for the fact that there is no
single pattern to be followed.
The main message of the sessions and discussions was that
much research and evidence are required in order to assist the regionalisation
processes in Central and Eastern Europe where the first experiences are
ambivalent.
The main conference theme was also discussed within a
round table in the closing plenary session comprising Marius Profiroiu,
Romania, Ilona Plane Kovacs, Hungary, Calin Hintea, Romania, Slobodan Dujic,
Slovenia and Kakha Shengelia, Georgia.
Reports of Working Groups
I. Working Group on Local Government
Coordinators:
Gabor Soos, Political Science Institute of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
Arto Haveri, Tampere School of Management, University of
Tampere, Finland
Topic: "Regionalisation and local governments"
In line with the general theme of the conference, the
sixth year of the Working Group on Local Government focused on the relationship
of regionalisation and local governance in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and
the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Both the functional needs of public administration and
the requirements of the EU structural funds led several countries in CEE to
either establish new tiers, or to reform the middle level between the central
and local government tiers. The general aim of the working group was based on the
various CEE or CIS problems - do regional-local relationships live up to the
normative expectations and highlight the similarities and differences between
countries or regions?
53 applications were received, from which 30 abstracts
were selected, and in the conference, 18 presentations were made. The
geographical coverage was not as widespread as the coordinators wished, but
better than last year. A total of seven presentations came from Poland, two
from Hungary, Russia, Romania and Lithuania, and one from Estonia, Slovenia and
Latvia.
The quality of the papers has been improving during the
last few years and this year was no exception. While papers were at various
levels of maturity, there were a number of good and well-structured papers,
which could be developed into journal articles. The trend of
professionalisation also continued also in the speeches made. Presenters
observed the time limits, focused on the main points, and used the projector.
The topic of the group for the 2014 conference in Budapest
will be "Mayors, ministers, administrators: Local governments in the
political context".
II. Working Group on e-Government
Coordinators:
Kristina Reinsalu, e-Governance Academy, Tallinn, Estonia
Ljupco Todorovski, Faculty of Public Administration,
University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Over the past years, the focus of the e-government
working group has been on building a learning platform of exemplary showcases
of using ICT in the public sector in the countries of the NISPAcee region. As a
consequence, most of the papers have been very country-specific, focusing on a
descriptive, often non-critical, analysis of exemplary cases of e-government
applications. The shift of focus of the working group towards more universal
topics and problems attracted more analytical papers on relevant and important
aspects of e-government, common to all the countries in the region. We received
twenty-five abstracts in the first round of submissions.
The final programme
was based on fourteen full papers. Many authors addressed an analysis and
evaluation of e-government initiatives in their countries, while some of them
had a narrow single-sector focus (e.g. e-health) with broad cross-country
comparisons. We clustered them in five sessions: one on evaluating e-government,
two on analysis of e-government initiatives at local and regional level, one on
analysis of e-governance and e-health at national level, and one technological
session on ideas for using contemporary wireless technologies for innovative
e-government solutions.
III. Working Group on Civil Service
Coordinators:
Patrycja Suwaj, Polish Association for Public Administration Education, Poland
Hans-Joachim Rieger, DBB Akademie, Germany
With an average of more than 15 – 20 participants in each
session (except the last one) this working group was very good occupied. The
presenters and the participants were a good mixture coming from science and
practice. This mixture of participants could also be observed in the
presentations, were we had scientific findings and comparative studies as well
as practical implementations and project reports.
Topics of the working group for this year were linked to
concepts of HR policy and strategy in civil services and performance of
training, tools and instruments for public servants:
• General
views on civil service EU
• Ethics,
integrity management and leadership
• Professionalization
qualification, learning and teaching
• Reform
of public service and instruments implementation and research
• Specific
regional and instrumental aspects of public service
All papers had clear objectives and also some practical
solutions. Some project reports were presented the third time so it was very
interesting to follow the project result and the project implementation. The
presentations improved very much: The presenters avoided a too broad history
background discussion and came straight to their message and what to learn out
of their findings.
IV. Working Group on Public Administration Reform in
CEECA
Coordinators:
Veronica Junjan, University of Twente, School of
Management and Governance, Enschede, The Netherlands
Diana-Camelia Iancu, National School of Political Studies
and Public Administration, Faculty of Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania
The theme of the 21st NISPAcee Annual conference in
Belgrade "Regionalisation and Inter-Regional Cooperation” was particularly
interesting for WG IV, PAR in CEECA. Fourteen papers out of the 15 which were
originally selected were presented during the five sessions assigned to our
group. The papers were grouped in sessions according to the following central
themes: PAR Theory; Stimuli; Actors; Instruments; and PAR as social Innovation. Our audience included practitioners and
academics alike, varied between 15 and 20 participants per session, and engaged
in very lively discussions. Practical and personal experiences, theoretical
frameworks, and methodological approaches were carefully analysed.
The discussions reached several conclusions. First, it
seems that there is a need for more reflection the relationship between
"reform” and "change” in the region. Public administrations do engage in
transformations at all levels, but consistency is required when analysing the
degrees, patterns and reform trends. External and internal driven forces, as
well as obstacles for promoting different courses of change, failures and
successes (however defined) were all included in the presented case studies and
were more carefully coupled with the domestic contexts. Second, as practitioners pointed out,
discussing regional experiences is crucial to meaningful research. Raising
awareness in academia on sensitive issues in the field is also extremely
important.
In perfect tune with our fruitful discussions, our group
proudly announces that the CPA-ICPAF Award for Best Comparative Paper presented
at the NISPAcee Annual Conference was awarded to one of the papers presented in
our sessions, namely, "Ex-post control and steering of government agencies in
Lithuania and Romania” co-authored by Vitalis Nakrosis, Calin Hintea, Dan
Balica, Adrian Hudrea, and Zilvinas Martinaitis.
V. Working Group onInternationalisation and Networking of Public Administration Studies and
Civil Servants’ Training Systems
Coordinator:
Eugenijus Chlivickas, Training Center of the Ministry of
Finance, Lithuania, President of the Lithuanian Public Administration Training
Association
Internationalisation and networking processes are one of
the most important conditions for the modernisation of public administration
studies and civil servants’ training systems in the European Union and in
Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The public administration studies
and civil servants' continuous training systems are closely related to the
strengthening of administrative capacities and new quality creation according
to the new global challenges.
This year the main focus was on the following issues:
-
accepting
new challenges for the improvement of public servants’ training, studies and
qualification quality in the future;
-
the
importance of internationalisation, networking and inter-regional cooperation
for teaching and professional development processes;
-
sharing
new experience accumulated in CEE countries, members of the EU, whilst
improving public servants’ qualifications and organising teaching and studies;
-
possibilities
for the application of the experience accumulated by the 'old' EU countries as
well as the USA or other Western countries in CEE countries;
-
opportunities
for the dissemination and application of Central and Eastern countries’
experience in Russia and other CIS countries and opportunities for applying
experience from Russia and other CIS countries by inter-regional cooperation;
-
integration
of scientific research elements into processes of studies, training and
qualification improvement through networking and internationalisation.
The work in the group in 2013 revealed several problems
of international cooperation development in the area of civil servants’
training and suggested solutions to them. The title and content of the WG is
relevant to solve the problems encountered.
VI. Working Group on Public Finance and Public Finance
Management
Coordinators:
Lucie Sedmihradská, Department of Public Finance,
University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic,
Juraj Nemec, Matej Bel University Banska Bystrica,
Slovakia
The WG on Public finance and public finance management
focused, during its meeting, on local government finance, public financial
management and fiscal policy issues. Originally, two tracks were originally
announced for this conference, i.e. a general track matching the name of the
working group and a specialised track "Quantitative methods and public finance
research”. However, only applications for the general track were received. In
total, 17 papers were presented, six of them in two monothematic sessions
focused on local government finance and efficiency evaluation and the remaining
papers in three mixed sessions. The addition of one session for the WG meeting
allowed time for further discussion and more focused comments for the authors.
VII. Working Group on Public Policy Analysis Development
Issues
Coordinator:
Frans Jorna,Associate Professor of Governance, Center for Urban and Environmental
Development, Enschede, Netherlands
This year’s NISPAcee conference focused the attention of
the working group on regional policy and regional cooperation, more
specifically, on how to improve policy development, with an eye on the social
relevance of the working group. Out of the 24 papers received, 10 were finally
included in the programme. The discussion was organised in five sessions:
- Session
1: Introduction; Evaluation and Learning (2 papers)
- Session
2: Assessing policies: normative perspectives (2 papers)
- Session
3: Capacity building: gearing up to improve (2 papers)
- Session
4: Case studies (3 papers)
- Session
5: Evidence-based recommendations to the WG (applied to 1 paper being
presented)
Over 50% of this year’s WG participants had been
participating in previous conferences as well, so that the WG was able to
develop a continuous approach and arrange itself in order to cooperate more
closely in the upcoming year. In the discussions, one common theme emerged: the
need for policy coordination (public-public; public-private) and the
consequences for policy design. The group identified two joint research lines
that should be explored:
- Performance
and impact measurement
- Comparative
approaches of public policy analysis: regulatory versus participatory
approaches.
The potential value of the WG for each of its members is
high. As colleagues, we can consult each other, review, ask questions, help out
with literature, identify comparative
cases, publish, initiate joint research programmes and work together as an
international group of policy analysts to be flown in anywhere in our region.
We are still far from realising that value, however. Arrangements were made to
make a first step in this direction:
- Reconnecting
with active participants in previous years to share this year’s work and invite
them to (re)join.
- Compilation
of a shared body of knowledge, available for all of the group members, on the
basis of an exchange of literature used.
- Development
of a comparative Case inventory.
- Exchange
of curricula and syllabi used by the members to improve our academic
programmes.
- Selection
of other venues up to next year’s NISPAcee conference for a core group to start
writing together.
- Identification
of practitioners that stand to profit from our work and who could be somehow
connected to the group.
- Improvement
of the group’s Facebook page.
VIII. Working Group on Public Administration Education
Coordinators:
Calin Hintea, Babes-Bolyai University, Department of
Public Administration,Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Theo van der Krogt, EAPAA (European Association for
Public Administration Accreditation), University of Twente, Enschede, The
Netherlands
This year we received fewer papers and had to reject several
of them. Also, some of the accepted papers were not presented because the
presenters were unable to attend the conference. Therefore, the coordinators
decided to use 3 slots for the presentation of ‘special items’.
In the end 5 ‘normal’ papers were presented as planned, 4
of them in 2 slots and one (because the presenter was severely delayed) during
one of the special slots.
The five papers had different subjects. One paper
presented a (partial) replication of an earlier research on types of PA programmes.
A second paper described the transformations in PA curricula in Lithuania in
connection with public sector reforms. A further paper described the UN project
to develop capacities for professionalism, integrity, and ethics to prevent
corruption in the public service. Another paper discussed plagiarism in
academia, and a further paper that described PA education and its challenges in
Afghanistan.
One of these special slots was used to discuss the
Tuning-PA project and the development of generic and specific competences. In
another slot, a special project of Babes-Bolyai University was presented, in
which Romanian and US students collaborated in research in Romania. Three
examples of such projects were presented by the students themselves. In the
third special slot, NASPAA’s vice-president presented a paper on global
collaboration to promote standards of quality in public administration
education. The presentation was followed by comments from representatives of
NASPAA, IASIA and EAPAA.
Attendance at the meetings of the working group was very
good. In total, 49 different persons attended one or more of the meetings.
IX. Working Group on Administration and Management of
Internal Security Agencies
Coordinator:
Sander Pollumae, Estonian Academy of Security Sciences,
Tallinn, Estonia
The Working Group on Internal Security is a new NISPAcee
Working Group, whose objectives are: 1) to present theory-based country case
studies in the working group following a detailed research programme and
summarising them into comparative studies; 2) to provide a common ground for
comparative research, joint research programmes and international cooperation
on training and exchange of experience between practitioners and researchers in
the domains of prison, police and other areas of internal security. This was
the second meeting of the working group with the general goal to focus on
country studies. During the session, Mr Aleksander Aristovnik presented papers
"Performance measurement in the Slovenian police at local level: A DEA
approach" and "The common assessment framework (CAF) and employee
satisfaction: The case of the Slovenian police service" and Mr Sander
Pollumae presented a paper "Disciplinary proceedings of convicts in
prisons of Estonia". Mr Konrad Pawlowski gave an overview on the role and
activities of the Polish border guard. Next year’s conference topic was also
discussed.
The group will focus on a rather more theory-based
analysis of bureaucracy and government of internal security agencies. Some
joint studies were agreed.
X. Working Group on Good Governance, Human Rights and
Development
Coordinator:
Tetyana Malyarenko, Donetsk State University of
Management, Donetsk, Ukraine
The second meeting of the WG on Good Governance, Human
Rights and Development focused on case studies of the implementation of a human
security strategy in concrete public policy initiatives in countries of Central
Eastern Europe, post-soviet countries and Afghanistan. Whereas the first
meeting of WG10 was aimed at discussing human security as a concept for foreign
and domestic policy, as well as clarification of the links between human
security and good governance, the meeting in Belgrade gave priority to the
practice of implementation. Through a thorough analysis of a few single country
case studies and structured comparisons, the members of the WG and guests
elaborated a comprehensive overview of why human security has increased
importance for public management, both in developed democracies and countries
in transition.
Colloquium for Practitioners
Coordinator:
Michiel de Vries, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen,
The Netherlands
During the 21st NISPAcee conference in Belgrade, for the
first time, a colloquium for practitioners was organised by Michael Brintnall
and Michiel S. de Vries. The colloquium consisted of two sessions. In the first
session, public-private relations were discussed and during the second, the
difficulties of administrative reform. The goal of both sessions was not to
discuss papers, but to discuss the topics as such. This proved to be very
interesting and all participants were enthusiastic about the approach. During
both sessions there were a huge number of participants who enjoyed the idea of
discussing the topical themes instead of scholarly papers.
One of the peculiarities of the colloquium was that
although the sessions were primarily meant for practitioners, the majority of
the attendants were academicians. This was, of course, in accordance with the
small number of practitioners attending the conference as a whole, but
nevertheless something might be done to attract more practitioners to this
colloquium next year, if it continues. One of the ideas is to have an extra
session in which the winners of the EPSA award present what they did in order
to receive that award and to discuss these practices.
The NISPAcee Business Meeting was also, as usual, on the
conference programme. The annual reports (activities, finances) and future
plans were presented to representatives of the NISPAcee members and other
participating guests.
A new Steering Committee member was elected for another
period – Jadranka Djurkovic, Human Resource Management Authority, Government of
Montenegro. Ringa Raudla, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia was
re-elected for another period.
NISPAcee Awards
During the 21st NISPAcee conference held in Belgrade, Serbia, May 16-18, 2013, the following awards were presented:
The Alena Brunovska Award for Teaching Excellence in
Public Administration was given to Prof. Calin Hintea, Dean of the Faculty of
Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babes-Bolyai University,
Romania.
The NISPAcee Merit Awards were presented to Prof. Gyorgy
Jenei, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary (on the right),
and
Dr. Theo van der Krogt (on the right),
General Secretary, EAPAA (European Association for Public Administration
Accreditation) for the substantial support and contribution to NISPAcee's development.
The Mzia Mikeladze PhD Thesis Award was presented to Mrs. Jane Järvalt, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia for the PhD thesis
„Strategic Human Resource Management in the Public Service: Evidence from
Estonia and Other Central and Eastern European Countries”.
The Best Comparative Paper presented at the Conferencewas presented to the winners Prof. Vitalis Nakrošis, Vilnius University,
Lithuania, Dr. Žilvinas Martinaitis, Vilnius University, Lithuania, Prof. Calin
Hintea, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania, Mr. Dan Balica (on the right), Babes-Bolyai
University, Romania,
Adrian Hudrea, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania for their
paper "Ex post control and steering of government agencies in Lithuania and
Romania”.
The Award ‘NISPAcee Best Graduate Student Paper’ was
presented to the winner Ms. Palina Prysmakova (in the middle) Florida International
University, Miami, USA for the paper „Public Service Motivation in Europe:
Testing Attitudes toward Work Motives".
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