Making the State Work: Lessons from 20 Years of Public Adminsitration Reforms in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

Abstract

The paper “Making the State Work: Lessons from 20 Years of Public Administration Reforms in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union” reviews literature analysing more than 20 years transition in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) with the main objective of bringing together existing research for practitioners in an accessible manner. The literature reviewed highlights a number of important lessons-learned after the political transitions beginning in 1989. The post-1989 development took many different directions in terms of economic, social and political reforms. The main difference in post-1989 institutional development has been between the countries that were part of the FSU and the countries that formed part of the external empire in CEE (including the Baltic republics that were normally incorporated into the Soviet Union). The post-Soviet countries still maintained the conceptual and institutional legacy of the Soviet Union, often combined with the gradual return to the traditional or patriarchal rule of the past, associated with little economic modernisation and the re-emergence of the traditional authority of clan connections. Meanwhile, the CEE countries generally returned to their pre-Soviet institutions and practices that made the democratic transition less vulnerable to the misuse of power and the reversal to autocratic or semi-totalitarian regimes.