Miklos Rosta | Corvinus University of Budapest (original) (raw)
Papers by Miklos Rosta
Public management reforms are usually underpinned by arguments that they will make the public adm... more Public management reforms are usually underpinned by arguments that they will make the public administration system more effective and efficient. In practice, however, it is very hard to determine whether a given reform will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the public administration system in the long run. Here, I shall examine how the concept of the soft budget constraint (SBC) introduced by Janos Kornai (Kornai 1979, 1986; Kornai, Maskin & Roland 2003) can be applied to this problem. In the following, I shall describe the Hungarian public administration reforms implemented by the Orban government from 2010 onward and analyze its reforms, focusing on which measures harden and which ones soften the budget constraint of the actors of the Hungarian public administration system. In the literature of economics, there is some evidence-based knowledge on how to harden/soften the budget constraint, which improves/reduces the effectiveness and hence the efficiency of the given sy...
Competitio, 2012
A jelen tanulmány egy olyan mutatót kíván bevezetni, amellyel lehetővé válik az új közszolgálati ... more A jelen tanulmány egy olyan mutatót kíván bevezetni, amellyel lehetővé válik az új közszolgálati menedzsment átfogó, makroszintű eredményességének értékelése. A szerző amutató megalkotása során a közösségi döntések elméletéből indul ki, mivel az új közszolgálati menedzsment politikaelméleti ésközgazdaság-tudományi alapjai szorosan köthetőek ezen elmélethez. A megalkotott kompozit indexet nem csak elméletben mutatja be, hanem tartalmilag és módszertanilag is ismerteti. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: H83, D70, D23
The paper seeks to explore and understand the relationship between two major contemporary public ... more The paper seeks to explore and understand the relationship between two major contemporary public management reform doctrines: the New Public Management (NPM) and the post-NPM doctrines. In particular, we wish to identify and test competing hypotheses about the possible causal relationships between these two doctrines. These hypotheses centre around two questions. Firstly, whether post-NPM reforms are triggered by earlier NPM reforms (and, in particular, by the perceived problems and failures brought about by them) or, rather, by other factors largely unrelated to NPM. Secondly, whether post-NPM reforms can be conceived of as an anti-thesis of NPM aimed at undoing the changes of the previous epoch or, rather, post-NPM elements add up to a new, additional “layer” of public management reforms, leaving the earlier ones largely untouched. The empirical basis of the analysis is a recent large-scale questionnaire survey of senior public administration executives working in sixteen European countries.
Társadalomkutatás, 2012
ABSTRACT The study seeks to answer the question how the goal of New Public Management (NPM) can b... more ABSTRACT The study seeks to answer the question how the goal of New Public Management (NPM) can be captured. The question is relevant as far as NPM has entered its “middle age” (Hood–Peters 2004: 1) when – by reviewing the results – its effects can be analyzed with scientific rigorousness and draw conclusion for the future. In order to evaluate the results of the NPM, its goal is to be clarified, to which the results can be compared. So far the academic society has failed to provide a comprehensive definition for the goals of the school; therefore its outcomes could not be analyzed. The study seeks to derive the goals of NPM from its approach and from public choice theory. The article argues that the goal of the NPM is to increase the efficiency of the public sector’s allocation function. This can be reached by using NPM methods fulfilling citizens’ expectations.
The study attempts to reveal the doctrinal foundations of Hungary's sweeping subnational gove... more The study attempts to reveal the doctrinal foundations of Hungary's sweeping subnational governance reforms (SGRs) having taken place in the 2010-2014 period. In particular, it seeks to answer the questions (i) which one of the most important reform doctrines actual SGRs in Hungary resemble the most, and (ii) what are the idiosyncratic doctrinal features of these reforms, making them substantially different from other, mainstream reform doctrines. On the basis of the analysis of 17 SGR steps in a comparative analytical framework the study concludes, firstly, that Hungary's reform path substantially diverges from all three major reform paradigms examined – i.e., the New Public Management, New Public Governance, and the Neo-Weberian State. A second conclusion is that this deviation is not of an unintended or accidental nature; rather, it seems to be part of a coherent and rationally pursued vision of (subnational) reforms possibly referred to as " illiberal state ". ...
Administration & Society, 2016
The study attempts to reveal the doctrinal foundations of Hungary’s sweeping sub-national governa... more The study attempts to reveal the doctrinal foundations of Hungary’s sweeping sub-national governance reforms (SGRs) that took place in the period 2010-2014. It compares actual SGRs with internationally mainstream doctrines of major contemporary reform, to determine the extent to and the ways in which Hungarian SGRs are a mixture of these trends as opposed to being a novel paradigm of its own. The study concludes that Hungary’s reform path substantially diverges from all three major reform paradigms examined—that is, New Public Management, New Public Governance, and the Neo-Weberian State. We end with the proposition that this deviation is not of an unintended or accidental nature; rather, it seems to be part of a coherent and rationally pursued vision of (sub-national) governance, possibly referred to as “illiberal.”
Public Choice, 2021
In the European Union right-wing and left-wing populist parties are increasingly becoming stronge... more In the European Union right-wing and left-wing populist parties are increasingly becoming stronger. Meanwhile in Central and Eastern Europe autocracies are emerging and becoming stabilized. Italy and Hungary are two notable examples of these processes. Italy is the only country in Western Europe where a coalition of purely populist parties won an election, while Hungary has the most mature autocracy in the European Union. By using survey methodology, we examined the preferences of Hungarian and Italian students regarding the values of liberal democracy. We seek answers to the questions whether there are any significant differences between the proportion of Hungarian students and Italian students who identify themselves with the values of liberal democracy and which of these values of liberal democracy they consider to be protected values. Based on our results, we claim that students from both countries are more likely to support liberal democratic values than to support either right...
Journal of Institutional Economics
This introduction to the Kornai 90 Symposium briefly overviews János Kornai's rich scholarshi... more This introduction to the Kornai 90 Symposium briefly overviews János Kornai's rich scholarship with the aim of highlighting those features of Kornai's work that are of particular interest to institutional economists. Above all, the introduction browses through some of his main works, such as Overcentralization, Anti-Equilibrium, and Economics of Shortage, with a special emphasis on the soft budget constraint, The Socialist System, and Kornai's latest writings on Hungary's U-turn. We invoke the political contexts of these works to suggest their impact on Kornai's diverse questions, changing methods, and the constraint they put on his conclusions as well as on the reception of the research results. In the end, we underline that Kornai was an independent scholar with an interest in a variety of methods and approaches, who nevertheless, or maybe consequently, had a remarkable impact on the thinking of social scientists and practitioners alike. The four papers present...
Az Új Közszolgálati Menedzsment (NPM) az elmúlt harminc évben megvalósult közmenedzsment reformok... more Az Új Közszolgálati Menedzsment (NPM) az elmúlt harminc évben megvalósult közmenedzsment reformok áttekintése után egyértelműen az uralkodó reform-irányzatnak tekinthető. A nemzetközi szervezetek, így többek között az OECD és az Európai Unió, teljes mellszélességgel támogatták az NPM reformok bevezetését, e kísérletek többsége azonban fájdalmas kudarccal végződött. Mára világossá vált, hogy az NPM nem csodaszer, de kevés tudományos igényű elemzés született arról, hogy mitől is függ az NPM reformok sikere. A szerző jelen könyvében e kérdés megválaszolására vállalkozik. Az új intézményi közgazdaságtan elméleteit felhasználva rávilágít az irányzat intézményi meghatározottságára. A kérdés a gyakorlati szakemberek és a politikusok számára is releváns, hiszen a közmenedzsment reformok sikeres megvalósítása az ő döntéseiken is múlik, ezért nem mindegy, hogy milyen tényezőket vesznek figyelembe ezek meghozatala során. A szerző arra a következtetésre jut a könyvben feltárt összefüggések alapján, hogy a társadalom tagjai által követett normarendszer és a kultúra befolyásolja leginkább az NPM reformok bevezetésének sikerességét. A könyv egyik fő üzenete, hogy a magyar társadalomtól eltérő kultúrával, tradíciókkal és hagyományokkal rendelkező országokban sikeresen alkalmazott közmenedzsment reformok másolása nagy valószínűséggel kudarccal végződne hazánkban.
The aim of the paper is to highlight the main characteristics of the recent Hungarian public admi... more The aim of the paper is to highlight the main characteristics of the recent Hungarian public administration reform, as well as to reveal the inconsistent nature of some of its elements and to describe the connected risks. The starting point of the article is the Magyary Zoltán public administration development programme. The reform steps are compared to the ideal type NPM approach. The Hungarian public administration reform can be characterized by strong centralization and the revitalization of Hungarian anti-liberal traditions at macro level, and by the support of the enhancement of market rules and management at micro level.
Az Új Közszolgálati Menedzsment (NPM) az el-múlt harminc évben megvalósult közmenedzs-mentreformo... more Az Új Közszolgálati Menedzsment (NPM) az el-múlt harminc évben megvalósult közmenedzs-mentreformok áttekintése után egyértelmûen az uralkodó reform-irányzatnak tekinthetõ. A nemzetközi szervezetek, így többek között az OECD és az Európai Unió, teljes mellszélesség-gel támogatták az NPM reformok bevezetését, e kísérletek többsége azonban fájdalmas ku-darccal végzõdött. Mára világossá vált, hogy az NPM nem csodaszer, de kevés tudományos igényû elemzés született arról, hogy mitõl is függ az NPM reformok sikere. A szerzõ jelen könyvében e kérdés megválaszolására vállal-kozik. Az új intézményi közgazdaságtan elmé-leteit felhasználva rávilágít az irányzat intézmé-nyi meghatározottságára. A kérdés a gyakorlati szakemberek és a politikusok számára is rele-váns, hiszen a közmenedzsment reformok si-keres megvalósítása az õ döntéseiken is múlik, ezért nem mindegy, hogy milyen tényezõket vesznek figyelembe ezek meghozatala során. A szerzõ arra a következtetésre jut a könyvben feltárt összefüggé...
Journal of Institutional Economics
This introduction to the Kornai 90 Symposium briefly overviews János Kornai's rich scholarshi... more This introduction to the Kornai 90 Symposium briefly overviews János Kornai's rich scholarship with the aim of highlighting those features of Kornai's work that are of particular interest to institutional economists. Above all, the introduction browses through some of his main works, such as Overcentralization, Anti-Equilibrium, and Economics of Shortage, with a special emphasis on the soft budget constraint, The Socialist System, and Kornai's latest writings on Hungary's U-turn. We invoke the political contexts of these works to suggest their impact on Kornai's diverse questions, changing methods, and the constraint they put on his conclusions as well as on the reception of the research results. In the end, we underline that Kornai was an independent scholar with an interest in a variety of methods and approaches, who nevertheless, or maybe consequently, had a remarkable impact on the thinking of social scientists and practitioners alike. The four papers present...
Public Choice, 2021
In the European Union right-wing and left-wing populist parties are increasingly becoming stronge... more In the European Union right-wing and left-wing populist parties are increasingly becoming stronger. Meanwhile in Central and Eastern Europe autocracies are emerging and becoming stabilized. Italy and Hungary are two notable examples of these processes. Italy is the only country in Western Europe where a coalition of purely populist parties won an election, while Hungary has the most mature autocracy in the European Union. By using survey methodology, we examined the preferences of Hungarian and Italian students regarding the values of liberal democracy. We seek answers to the questions whether there are any significant differences between the proportion of Hungarian students and Italian students who identify themselves with the values of liberal democracy and which of these values of liberal democracy they consider to be protected values. Based on our results, we claim that students from both countries are more likely to support liberal democratic values than to support either right-wing or left-wing populist values, even if the distributions of the two groups differ significantly. We found that Italian students adhere more strongly to liberal democratic values, while Hungarians are more open to left-wing and right-wing populism. Our results confirm that in Hungary, because of the values that many people hold, conditions are conducive for establishing a sustainable autocracy, while in Italy, the demand for such a system is much weaker.
Public management reforms are usually underpinned by arguments that they will make the public adm... more Public management reforms are usually underpinned by arguments that they will make the public administration system more effective and efficient. In practice, however, it is very hard to determine whether a given reform will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the public administration system in the long run. Here, I shall examine how the concept of the soft budget constraint (SBC) introduced by Janos Kornai (Kornai 1979, 1986; Kornai, Maskin & Roland 2003) can be applied to this problem. In the following, I shall describe the Hungarian public administration reforms implemented by the Orban government from 2010 onward and analyze its reforms, focusing on which measures harden and which ones soften the budget constraint of the actors of the Hungarian public administration system. In the literature of economics, there is some evidence-based knowledge on how to harden/soften the budget constraint, which improves/reduces the effectiveness and hence the efficiency of the given sy...
Competitio, 2012
A jelen tanulmány egy olyan mutatót kíván bevezetni, amellyel lehetővé válik az új közszolgálati ... more A jelen tanulmány egy olyan mutatót kíván bevezetni, amellyel lehetővé válik az új közszolgálati menedzsment átfogó, makroszintű eredményességének értékelése. A szerző amutató megalkotása során a közösségi döntések elméletéből indul ki, mivel az új közszolgálati menedzsment politikaelméleti ésközgazdaság-tudományi alapjai szorosan köthetőek ezen elmélethez. A megalkotott kompozit indexet nem csak elméletben mutatja be, hanem tartalmilag és módszertanilag is ismerteti. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: H83, D70, D23
The paper seeks to explore and understand the relationship between two major contemporary public ... more The paper seeks to explore and understand the relationship between two major contemporary public management reform doctrines: the New Public Management (NPM) and the post-NPM doctrines. In particular, we wish to identify and test competing hypotheses about the possible causal relationships between these two doctrines. These hypotheses centre around two questions. Firstly, whether post-NPM reforms are triggered by earlier NPM reforms (and, in particular, by the perceived problems and failures brought about by them) or, rather, by other factors largely unrelated to NPM. Secondly, whether post-NPM reforms can be conceived of as an anti-thesis of NPM aimed at undoing the changes of the previous epoch or, rather, post-NPM elements add up to a new, additional “layer” of public management reforms, leaving the earlier ones largely untouched. The empirical basis of the analysis is a recent large-scale questionnaire survey of senior public administration executives working in sixteen European countries.
Társadalomkutatás, 2012
ABSTRACT The study seeks to answer the question how the goal of New Public Management (NPM) can b... more ABSTRACT The study seeks to answer the question how the goal of New Public Management (NPM) can be captured. The question is relevant as far as NPM has entered its “middle age” (Hood–Peters 2004: 1) when – by reviewing the results – its effects can be analyzed with scientific rigorousness and draw conclusion for the future. In order to evaluate the results of the NPM, its goal is to be clarified, to which the results can be compared. So far the academic society has failed to provide a comprehensive definition for the goals of the school; therefore its outcomes could not be analyzed. The study seeks to derive the goals of NPM from its approach and from public choice theory. The article argues that the goal of the NPM is to increase the efficiency of the public sector’s allocation function. This can be reached by using NPM methods fulfilling citizens’ expectations.
The study attempts to reveal the doctrinal foundations of Hungary's sweeping subnational gove... more The study attempts to reveal the doctrinal foundations of Hungary's sweeping subnational governance reforms (SGRs) having taken place in the 2010-2014 period. In particular, it seeks to answer the questions (i) which one of the most important reform doctrines actual SGRs in Hungary resemble the most, and (ii) what are the idiosyncratic doctrinal features of these reforms, making them substantially different from other, mainstream reform doctrines. On the basis of the analysis of 17 SGR steps in a comparative analytical framework the study concludes, firstly, that Hungary's reform path substantially diverges from all three major reform paradigms examined – i.e., the New Public Management, New Public Governance, and the Neo-Weberian State. A second conclusion is that this deviation is not of an unintended or accidental nature; rather, it seems to be part of a coherent and rationally pursued vision of (subnational) reforms possibly referred to as " illiberal state ". ...
Administration & Society, 2016
The study attempts to reveal the doctrinal foundations of Hungary’s sweeping sub-national governa... more The study attempts to reveal the doctrinal foundations of Hungary’s sweeping sub-national governance reforms (SGRs) that took place in the period 2010-2014. It compares actual SGRs with internationally mainstream doctrines of major contemporary reform, to determine the extent to and the ways in which Hungarian SGRs are a mixture of these trends as opposed to being a novel paradigm of its own. The study concludes that Hungary’s reform path substantially diverges from all three major reform paradigms examined—that is, New Public Management, New Public Governance, and the Neo-Weberian State. We end with the proposition that this deviation is not of an unintended or accidental nature; rather, it seems to be part of a coherent and rationally pursued vision of (sub-national) governance, possibly referred to as “illiberal.”
Public Choice, 2021
In the European Union right-wing and left-wing populist parties are increasingly becoming stronge... more In the European Union right-wing and left-wing populist parties are increasingly becoming stronger. Meanwhile in Central and Eastern Europe autocracies are emerging and becoming stabilized. Italy and Hungary are two notable examples of these processes. Italy is the only country in Western Europe where a coalition of purely populist parties won an election, while Hungary has the most mature autocracy in the European Union. By using survey methodology, we examined the preferences of Hungarian and Italian students regarding the values of liberal democracy. We seek answers to the questions whether there are any significant differences between the proportion of Hungarian students and Italian students who identify themselves with the values of liberal democracy and which of these values of liberal democracy they consider to be protected values. Based on our results, we claim that students from both countries are more likely to support liberal democratic values than to support either right...
Journal of Institutional Economics
This introduction to the Kornai 90 Symposium briefly overviews János Kornai's rich scholarshi... more This introduction to the Kornai 90 Symposium briefly overviews János Kornai's rich scholarship with the aim of highlighting those features of Kornai's work that are of particular interest to institutional economists. Above all, the introduction browses through some of his main works, such as Overcentralization, Anti-Equilibrium, and Economics of Shortage, with a special emphasis on the soft budget constraint, The Socialist System, and Kornai's latest writings on Hungary's U-turn. We invoke the political contexts of these works to suggest their impact on Kornai's diverse questions, changing methods, and the constraint they put on his conclusions as well as on the reception of the research results. In the end, we underline that Kornai was an independent scholar with an interest in a variety of methods and approaches, who nevertheless, or maybe consequently, had a remarkable impact on the thinking of social scientists and practitioners alike. The four papers present...
Az Új Közszolgálati Menedzsment (NPM) az elmúlt harminc évben megvalósult közmenedzsment reformok... more Az Új Közszolgálati Menedzsment (NPM) az elmúlt harminc évben megvalósult közmenedzsment reformok áttekintése után egyértelműen az uralkodó reform-irányzatnak tekinthető. A nemzetközi szervezetek, így többek között az OECD és az Európai Unió, teljes mellszélességgel támogatták az NPM reformok bevezetését, e kísérletek többsége azonban fájdalmas kudarccal végződött. Mára világossá vált, hogy az NPM nem csodaszer, de kevés tudományos igényű elemzés született arról, hogy mitől is függ az NPM reformok sikere. A szerző jelen könyvében e kérdés megválaszolására vállalkozik. Az új intézményi közgazdaságtan elméleteit felhasználva rávilágít az irányzat intézményi meghatározottságára. A kérdés a gyakorlati szakemberek és a politikusok számára is releváns, hiszen a közmenedzsment reformok sikeres megvalósítása az ő döntéseiken is múlik, ezért nem mindegy, hogy milyen tényezőket vesznek figyelembe ezek meghozatala során. A szerző arra a következtetésre jut a könyvben feltárt összefüggések alapján, hogy a társadalom tagjai által követett normarendszer és a kultúra befolyásolja leginkább az NPM reformok bevezetésének sikerességét. A könyv egyik fő üzenete, hogy a magyar társadalomtól eltérő kultúrával, tradíciókkal és hagyományokkal rendelkező országokban sikeresen alkalmazott közmenedzsment reformok másolása nagy valószínűséggel kudarccal végződne hazánkban.
The aim of the paper is to highlight the main characteristics of the recent Hungarian public admi... more The aim of the paper is to highlight the main characteristics of the recent Hungarian public administration reform, as well as to reveal the inconsistent nature of some of its elements and to describe the connected risks. The starting point of the article is the Magyary Zoltán public administration development programme. The reform steps are compared to the ideal type NPM approach. The Hungarian public administration reform can be characterized by strong centralization and the revitalization of Hungarian anti-liberal traditions at macro level, and by the support of the enhancement of market rules and management at micro level.
Az Új Közszolgálati Menedzsment (NPM) az el-múlt harminc évben megvalósult közmenedzs-mentreformo... more Az Új Közszolgálati Menedzsment (NPM) az el-múlt harminc évben megvalósult közmenedzs-mentreformok áttekintése után egyértelmûen az uralkodó reform-irányzatnak tekinthetõ. A nemzetközi szervezetek, így többek között az OECD és az Európai Unió, teljes mellszélesség-gel támogatták az NPM reformok bevezetését, e kísérletek többsége azonban fájdalmas ku-darccal végzõdött. Mára világossá vált, hogy az NPM nem csodaszer, de kevés tudományos igényû elemzés született arról, hogy mitõl is függ az NPM reformok sikere. A szerzõ jelen könyvében e kérdés megválaszolására vállal-kozik. Az új intézményi közgazdaságtan elmé-leteit felhasználva rávilágít az irányzat intézmé-nyi meghatározottságára. A kérdés a gyakorlati szakemberek és a politikusok számára is rele-váns, hiszen a közmenedzsment reformok si-keres megvalósítása az õ döntéseiken is múlik, ezért nem mindegy, hogy milyen tényezõket vesznek figyelembe ezek meghozatala során. A szerzõ arra a következtetésre jut a könyvben feltárt összefüggé...
Journal of Institutional Economics
This introduction to the Kornai 90 Symposium briefly overviews János Kornai's rich scholarshi... more This introduction to the Kornai 90 Symposium briefly overviews János Kornai's rich scholarship with the aim of highlighting those features of Kornai's work that are of particular interest to institutional economists. Above all, the introduction browses through some of his main works, such as Overcentralization, Anti-Equilibrium, and Economics of Shortage, with a special emphasis on the soft budget constraint, The Socialist System, and Kornai's latest writings on Hungary's U-turn. We invoke the political contexts of these works to suggest their impact on Kornai's diverse questions, changing methods, and the constraint they put on his conclusions as well as on the reception of the research results. In the end, we underline that Kornai was an independent scholar with an interest in a variety of methods and approaches, who nevertheless, or maybe consequently, had a remarkable impact on the thinking of social scientists and practitioners alike. The four papers present...
Public Choice, 2021
In the European Union right-wing and left-wing populist parties are increasingly becoming stronge... more In the European Union right-wing and left-wing populist parties are increasingly becoming stronger. Meanwhile in Central and Eastern Europe autocracies are emerging and becoming stabilized. Italy and Hungary are two notable examples of these processes. Italy is the only country in Western Europe where a coalition of purely populist parties won an election, while Hungary has the most mature autocracy in the European Union. By using survey methodology, we examined the preferences of Hungarian and Italian students regarding the values of liberal democracy. We seek answers to the questions whether there are any significant differences between the proportion of Hungarian students and Italian students who identify themselves with the values of liberal democracy and which of these values of liberal democracy they consider to be protected values. Based on our results, we claim that students from both countries are more likely to support liberal democratic values than to support either right-wing or left-wing populist values, even if the distributions of the two groups differ significantly. We found that Italian students adhere more strongly to liberal democratic values, while Hungarians are more open to left-wing and right-wing populism. Our results confirm that in Hungary, because of the values that many people hold, conditions are conducive for establishing a sustainable autocracy, while in Italy, the demand for such a system is much weaker.