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Book Chapters by Gyorgy Gajduschek
In: Neuhold, Ch. And Vanhoonacker, S. (Eds.). Civil Servants and Politics : A Delicate Balance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 123-151. ISBN 978-0-230-30483-3, 2013
Civil service reforms in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the last decade have focused on vari... more Civil service reforms in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the last decade have focused on various tools that would increase professionalization and depoliticize civil service. Different countries have undertaken different trajectories of reforms, starting gradually with a regime change in Hungary or rapidly - mainly under pressure from the EU - in Slovakia. While there have been some policy successes and institutional improvements, these achievements have tended to be ad hoc and dependent on individuals, not on a solidly performing system. Thus, the overall reform goal of an unpoliticized professional civil service recruited and remunerated by way of a merit system, has not been achieved satisfactorily. This article deals with civil service reforms undertaken in Slovakia and Hungary and argues that regardless of the different reform modi chosen, politicization of the civil service still remains due to the dynamics of transition.
Papers by Gyorgy Gajduschek
‘Jogalkotási javaslatok megfogalmazása a jogtudományban’ [Policy Proposals and Legal Scholarship]
Communist and Post-communist Studies, Aug 21, 2007
This paper aims to determine where the Hungarian civil service system might be situated on an ima... more This paper aims to determine where the Hungarian civil service system might be situated on an imaginary merit system e spoils system scale. In doing so, the Hungarian system is analyzed from two angles. Firstly, regulation is scrutinized as it is manifested in the Civil Service Act. Secondly, practice is examined relying on available statistical and survey data. The author argues that, contrary to the conclusions of most of scholarly publications, the Hungarian Law is a pseudo-merit system law, not in fact preventing the prevalence of a spoils system. Practice generally reveals, however, features of a modestly politicized system with signs of increasing professionalization. The last two sections investigate the potential explanations for these somewhat surprising findings and whether the findings for the Hungarian civil service may be generalized to some or most of the Central and East European countries.
The paper provides a brief, admittedly subjective and critical overview of the four major theorie... more The paper provides a brief, admittedly subjective and critical overview of the four major theories on public administration as they have appeared (or not) in Central and Eastern Europe. "Bureaucracy" is discussed in greater detail. Adding to the general belief that it was the communist regime with its politicized personnel policy that prevented the formation of a full-fledged bureaucracy, the paper emphasizes that there are other, long-term impediments in the region as well. Heydays of NPM and the transition from the communist past appeared parallel in the region. The gap between the communist system and NPM ideal could hardly be wider; simplistically: the former resisting the latter preferring anything that is "private" and "market". The gap was perhaps too large to successfully bridge. Good Governance and Neo-Weberan State is widely discussed among researchers of the region. However, one can hardly identify such solutions in practice in CEE.
Acta Juridica Hungarica, Dec 1, 2009
The paper criticizes the ideology behind New Public Management movement that prefers market to go... more The paper criticizes the ideology behind New Public Management movement that prefers market to government, private company to public institutions. The study sums up the main arguments of this ideology, based mostly on an overly simplified version of neoclassical economics and attempts to provide a structured inventory of counter arguments. Counter arguments first attack the myth of the general superiority of the market and the firm. Secondly, it is argued that government is different. Thus, even if market and firm were superior these mechanisms still cannot be applied in most parts of government business.
Bureaucracy: Is It Efficient? Is It Not? Is That The Question?
Administration & Society, 2003
Most contemporary scholars regard bureaucracy as an inefficient phenomenon. At the same time, we ... more Most contemporary scholars regard bureaucracy as an inefficient phenomenon. At the same time, we may find a great number of bureaucratic organizations in the various social spheres. Max Weber, who introduced the concept of bureaucracy into the social sciences, however, was convinced that bureaucracy is superior to any other organizational form and explained its prevalence by the immanent rationality of bureaucratic organizations. In analyzing Weber’s text, the author argues that Weber was mistranslated into English and then misinterpreted. Weber’s term rationality is not at all identical to efficiency. Rationality includes also uncertainty reduction regarding internal organizational procedures as well as outputs. Uncertainty reduction may induce several advantages, which, in several cases, ensure organizational superiority.
The fourth session, moderated by Calin Hintea, dealt with the patronage, political appointments a... more The fourth session, moderated by Calin Hintea, dealt with the patronage, political appointments and politicization in CEE countries. The keynote speaker Maria Spirova delivered a presentation on a large-scale cross-European survey attacking the issue of patronage. The survey compares three CEE countries (Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Hungary) with one another and several other EU member states regarding the overall measure and the type of patronage and politicization. Miroslav Beblavy and Emilia Sicakova-Beblava defined various types of politicization and analyzed how these appear in Slovakia, a country whose civil service is considered as one of the most politicized in the EU. They argued that there are various types of political appointments, some of which takes into account professional qualities as well. For instance, if ministers appoint their staff political and/or personal loyalty is surely a selection criteria, butas the performance of his/her staff, eg. PR officials, directly influences the ministers" careerskills of these persons is also taken into consideration. So called coalition appointments, on the other hand, are purely influenced by
Transylvanian review of administrative sciences, Feb 15, 2015
The paper analyses the effectiveness of law enforcement by regulatory agencies in Hungary. Empiri... more The paper analyses the effectiveness of law enforcement by regulatory agencies in Hungary. Empirical data were collected from such diverse fields as consumer rights protection, construction, road safety, labor regulation, etc. The data were analyzed using a simplified rational choice model, looking for evidence of whether administrative practices were effective in preventing rational actors from breaking the law. The analysis robustly proves the ineffectiveness of regulatory activity, as the breaking of laws may yield, in a conservative estimate, 10 to 100,000 times more income than the expected monetary value of the fine. In brief, the government of Hungary is generally unable to enforce its own laws. Though the paper makes use of data solely from Hungary, it aims to provide a methodology for measuring regulatory capacity more generally.
A dolgozat a címben megjelenő kérdést kísérli megválaszolni. Végkövetkeztetése az, hogy a kormány... more A dolgozat a címben megjelenő kérdést kísérli megválaszolni. Végkövetkeztetése az, hogy a kormányzati teljesítmény jórészt mérhető, ám ennek költségei vannak, és meg kell határozni, hogy mit mérünk, vagyis adataink milyen kérdésre adnak választ. A tanulmány áttekintést ad a teljesítmény különféle értelmezési kereteiről, és megkísérli rendszerezni ezeket, egy olyan dimenziórendszert meghatározva, amelyben a teljesítmény különféle fogalmai elhelyezhetők. Ennek kapcsán két vitához is kapcsolódom: egyfelől Pesti Sándor korábbi állítását vitatom, miszerint a kormányzati teljesítmény nem mérhető; másfelől a közpolitikai diskurzussal és annak elemzésével kapcsolatos gondolataimat kísérlem meg világossá tenni. Kulcsszavak: közpolitika közpolitika-elemzés kormányzati teljesítmény eredményesség hatékonyság * Köszönet a dolgozathoz fűzött kritikus megjegyzésekért kollégáimnak; különösen Bartha Attilának, Boda Zsoltnak, Hajnal Györgynek, Horváth M. Tamásnak és az opponensnek. A dolgozat erényei -ha vannak -jelentős részben nekik tudhatók be.
Political Culture and Citizen Involvement
Local Democracy and the Processes of Transformation in East-Central Europe, 2019
Social Report
The status of the rule of law (hereafter RoL) has been steadily deteriorating in Hungary. This ha... more The status of the rule of law (hereafter RoL) has been steadily deteriorating in Hungary. This has come about via a number of minor steps that demonstrate a clear downward trend. 1 The individual steps have been documented in detail not only in the legal literature (e.g. , but also in the international press dealing with Hungary. However, the extent of the deterioration has often been unclear, with even experts sometimes disagreeing. 2 This is due to a number of factors, the most important probably being that experts in the field are normally lawyers, who are usually untrained in quantitative methods. Traditional (qualitative) lawyerly methods are generally a reliable means of establishing whether a certain measure is in breach of the RoL. However, lawyers are not familiar with gauging the extent to which the RoL has deteriorated in a country. Another epistemological problem is that lawyers normally concentrate on the analysis of formal legal rules. But the nub of the problem in Hungary is precisely that the formal legal rules and the reality are increasingly growing apart, with changes taking place much more frequently in actual practices than in the formal legal rules (Jakab and . Such a situation may be comprehensively summed up by so-called 'RoL indices' that capture various details in a single indicator; more importantly,
A growing number of countries are introducing a distinct narrow group of civil service with speci... more A growing number of countries are introducing a distinct narrow group of civil service with specific processes for recruitment, management and remuneration and accountability that differ from those applied for general civil service. This core civil service is usually called senior civil service. This paper explores the establishment and institutionalization of Senior Civil Service in three CEE countries: Estonia, Hungary and Slovakia. We analyze the formation, the systemic arrangement (merit vs. position), coordination mechanisms, the selection and recruitment as well as the remuneration system of senior civil servants, looking for similarities and differences between these countries and the potential explanation for these in the concluding setion.
Az Európai Unió tagállamainak közigazgatása
Wolters Kluwer Kft. eBooks, 2016
In: Neuhold, Ch. And Vanhoonacker, S. (Eds.). Civil Servants and Politics : A Delicate Balance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 123-151. ISBN 978-0-230-30483-3, 2013
Civil service reforms in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the last decade have focused on vari... more Civil service reforms in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the last decade have focused on various tools that would increase professionalization and depoliticize civil service. Different countries have undertaken different trajectories of reforms, starting gradually with a regime change in Hungary or rapidly - mainly under pressure from the EU - in Slovakia. While there have been some policy successes and institutional improvements, these achievements have tended to be ad hoc and dependent on individuals, not on a solidly performing system. Thus, the overall reform goal of an unpoliticized professional civil service recruited and remunerated by way of a merit system, has not been achieved satisfactorily. This article deals with civil service reforms undertaken in Slovakia and Hungary and argues that regardless of the different reform modi chosen, politicization of the civil service still remains due to the dynamics of transition.
‘Jogalkotási javaslatok megfogalmazása a jogtudományban’ [Policy Proposals and Legal Scholarship]
Communist and Post-communist Studies, Aug 21, 2007
This paper aims to determine where the Hungarian civil service system might be situated on an ima... more This paper aims to determine where the Hungarian civil service system might be situated on an imaginary merit system e spoils system scale. In doing so, the Hungarian system is analyzed from two angles. Firstly, regulation is scrutinized as it is manifested in the Civil Service Act. Secondly, practice is examined relying on available statistical and survey data. The author argues that, contrary to the conclusions of most of scholarly publications, the Hungarian Law is a pseudo-merit system law, not in fact preventing the prevalence of a spoils system. Practice generally reveals, however, features of a modestly politicized system with signs of increasing professionalization. The last two sections investigate the potential explanations for these somewhat surprising findings and whether the findings for the Hungarian civil service may be generalized to some or most of the Central and East European countries.
The paper provides a brief, admittedly subjective and critical overview of the four major theorie... more The paper provides a brief, admittedly subjective and critical overview of the four major theories on public administration as they have appeared (or not) in Central and Eastern Europe. "Bureaucracy" is discussed in greater detail. Adding to the general belief that it was the communist regime with its politicized personnel policy that prevented the formation of a full-fledged bureaucracy, the paper emphasizes that there are other, long-term impediments in the region as well. Heydays of NPM and the transition from the communist past appeared parallel in the region. The gap between the communist system and NPM ideal could hardly be wider; simplistically: the former resisting the latter preferring anything that is "private" and "market". The gap was perhaps too large to successfully bridge. Good Governance and Neo-Weberan State is widely discussed among researchers of the region. However, one can hardly identify such solutions in practice in CEE.
Acta Juridica Hungarica, Dec 1, 2009
The paper criticizes the ideology behind New Public Management movement that prefers market to go... more The paper criticizes the ideology behind New Public Management movement that prefers market to government, private company to public institutions. The study sums up the main arguments of this ideology, based mostly on an overly simplified version of neoclassical economics and attempts to provide a structured inventory of counter arguments. Counter arguments first attack the myth of the general superiority of the market and the firm. Secondly, it is argued that government is different. Thus, even if market and firm were superior these mechanisms still cannot be applied in most parts of government business.
Bureaucracy: Is It Efficient? Is It Not? Is That The Question?
Administration & Society, 2003
Most contemporary scholars regard bureaucracy as an inefficient phenomenon. At the same time, we ... more Most contemporary scholars regard bureaucracy as an inefficient phenomenon. At the same time, we may find a great number of bureaucratic organizations in the various social spheres. Max Weber, who introduced the concept of bureaucracy into the social sciences, however, was convinced that bureaucracy is superior to any other organizational form and explained its prevalence by the immanent rationality of bureaucratic organizations. In analyzing Weber’s text, the author argues that Weber was mistranslated into English and then misinterpreted. Weber’s term rationality is not at all identical to efficiency. Rationality includes also uncertainty reduction regarding internal organizational procedures as well as outputs. Uncertainty reduction may induce several advantages, which, in several cases, ensure organizational superiority.
The fourth session, moderated by Calin Hintea, dealt with the patronage, political appointments a... more The fourth session, moderated by Calin Hintea, dealt with the patronage, political appointments and politicization in CEE countries. The keynote speaker Maria Spirova delivered a presentation on a large-scale cross-European survey attacking the issue of patronage. The survey compares three CEE countries (Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Hungary) with one another and several other EU member states regarding the overall measure and the type of patronage and politicization. Miroslav Beblavy and Emilia Sicakova-Beblava defined various types of politicization and analyzed how these appear in Slovakia, a country whose civil service is considered as one of the most politicized in the EU. They argued that there are various types of political appointments, some of which takes into account professional qualities as well. For instance, if ministers appoint their staff political and/or personal loyalty is surely a selection criteria, butas the performance of his/her staff, eg. PR officials, directly influences the ministers" careerskills of these persons is also taken into consideration. So called coalition appointments, on the other hand, are purely influenced by
Transylvanian review of administrative sciences, Feb 15, 2015
The paper analyses the effectiveness of law enforcement by regulatory agencies in Hungary. Empiri... more The paper analyses the effectiveness of law enforcement by regulatory agencies in Hungary. Empirical data were collected from such diverse fields as consumer rights protection, construction, road safety, labor regulation, etc. The data were analyzed using a simplified rational choice model, looking for evidence of whether administrative practices were effective in preventing rational actors from breaking the law. The analysis robustly proves the ineffectiveness of regulatory activity, as the breaking of laws may yield, in a conservative estimate, 10 to 100,000 times more income than the expected monetary value of the fine. In brief, the government of Hungary is generally unable to enforce its own laws. Though the paper makes use of data solely from Hungary, it aims to provide a methodology for measuring regulatory capacity more generally.
A dolgozat a címben megjelenő kérdést kísérli megválaszolni. Végkövetkeztetése az, hogy a kormány... more A dolgozat a címben megjelenő kérdést kísérli megválaszolni. Végkövetkeztetése az, hogy a kormányzati teljesítmény jórészt mérhető, ám ennek költségei vannak, és meg kell határozni, hogy mit mérünk, vagyis adataink milyen kérdésre adnak választ. A tanulmány áttekintést ad a teljesítmény különféle értelmezési kereteiről, és megkísérli rendszerezni ezeket, egy olyan dimenziórendszert meghatározva, amelyben a teljesítmény különféle fogalmai elhelyezhetők. Ennek kapcsán két vitához is kapcsolódom: egyfelől Pesti Sándor korábbi állítását vitatom, miszerint a kormányzati teljesítmény nem mérhető; másfelől a közpolitikai diskurzussal és annak elemzésével kapcsolatos gondolataimat kísérlem meg világossá tenni. Kulcsszavak: közpolitika közpolitika-elemzés kormányzati teljesítmény eredményesség hatékonyság * Köszönet a dolgozathoz fűzött kritikus megjegyzésekért kollégáimnak; különösen Bartha Attilának, Boda Zsoltnak, Hajnal Györgynek, Horváth M. Tamásnak és az opponensnek. A dolgozat erényei -ha vannak -jelentős részben nekik tudhatók be.
Political Culture and Citizen Involvement
Local Democracy and the Processes of Transformation in East-Central Europe, 2019
Social Report
The status of the rule of law (hereafter RoL) has been steadily deteriorating in Hungary. This ha... more The status of the rule of law (hereafter RoL) has been steadily deteriorating in Hungary. This has come about via a number of minor steps that demonstrate a clear downward trend. 1 The individual steps have been documented in detail not only in the legal literature (e.g. , but also in the international press dealing with Hungary. However, the extent of the deterioration has often been unclear, with even experts sometimes disagreeing. 2 This is due to a number of factors, the most important probably being that experts in the field are normally lawyers, who are usually untrained in quantitative methods. Traditional (qualitative) lawyerly methods are generally a reliable means of establishing whether a certain measure is in breach of the RoL. However, lawyers are not familiar with gauging the extent to which the RoL has deteriorated in a country. Another epistemological problem is that lawyers normally concentrate on the analysis of formal legal rules. But the nub of the problem in Hungary is precisely that the formal legal rules and the reality are increasingly growing apart, with changes taking place much more frequently in actual practices than in the formal legal rules (Jakab and . Such a situation may be comprehensively summed up by so-called 'RoL indices' that capture various details in a single indicator; more importantly,
A growing number of countries are introducing a distinct narrow group of civil service with speci... more A growing number of countries are introducing a distinct narrow group of civil service with specific processes for recruitment, management and remuneration and accountability that differ from those applied for general civil service. This core civil service is usually called senior civil service. This paper explores the establishment and institutionalization of Senior Civil Service in three CEE countries: Estonia, Hungary and Slovakia. We analyze the formation, the systemic arrangement (merit vs. position), coordination mechanisms, the selection and recruitment as well as the remuneration system of senior civil servants, looking for similarities and differences between these countries and the potential explanation for these in the concluding setion.
Az Európai Unió tagállamainak közigazgatása
Wolters Kluwer Kft. eBooks, 2016
International Journal of Public Administration, 2021
This paper argues that the role of informal institutions is central to understanding the politici... more This paper argues that the role of informal institutions is central to understanding the politicization in Central and Eastern Europe generally and specifically in the formation of senior civil service (SCS) system. We focus on three diverse CEE countries in our analysis: Estonia, Hungary and Slovakia. Our analysis is based on the framework elaborated by Helmke & Levitsky, of informal institutions and focuses on "competing" informal institution of discretionary power of politicians in personnel SCS decisions. We argue that turning to "substitutive" informal institutions were critical in forming professional SCS in Estonia, while relying solely on formal institutions (i.e. law making) in Hungary and Slovakia evidently failed to create a professional formal SCS. We identify factors that in this region may promulgate professionalization. We also test the applicability of Helmke Levitsky framework and suggest some ways to expand its applicability.