Issue published: 13 March 2024

Download full issue

Organizational Culture and Public Administration – the Quality of Customer Operations in Administrative units in Slovenia

Irena Bačlija and Marjan Brezovšek, p. 5–24

Abstract: The rapid transfi guration of modern society through globalization processes is changing the national state administration’s classical regulative and authoritative role into a creative evolutional partnership encompassing all subsystems of society. In fact, the creation and development of a modern administrative system is the main goal not only of ex-socialist countries but nations worldwide. We expect our public administration bodies to have the relevant skills to deal with and be aware of all the political and organizational changes taking place in the globalized world; if they are lacking it will be impossible to move from structural towards material change. In the processes of evolutionary change in public organizations, organizational culture plays a most important role because without it we cannot understand the dynamics of organizational growth and change, and why certain processes cannot be revived. In this paper the authors will analyse organizational cultures and climates and stress their importance for public administration systems. Its goal is to present and evaluate a project in the Slovenian national state administration system that has been ongoing for almost fi ve years. The project involves the comparative research of the organizational climate and satisfaction levels among civil servants and citizens (users). The authors will focus their analysis on levels of awareness of the importance of satisfaction and organizational climate in administrative organizations, given their impacts on organizational effi ciency and effectiveness, and analyse the organizational climate’s effects on employee motivation.

Keywords: Organizational culture, organizational climate, public administration, administrative reform in Slovenia

Decentralisation Processes in Croatia and Slovenia

Ladislav Cabada, p. 25–38

Abstract: The article analyzes the decentralisation processes in two post-Yugoslavian countries that underwent a distinctively different development after their secesion from Yugoslavia. The analyzes verifies two basic hypothesis: 1) the the process of joining the European Union, especially the demand to accept specifi c criteria of home politics, includes the demand for subsidiarity and decentralization; 2) that the development of democracy encourages the decentralization process more than the development in an authoritative regime, or in a regime with limited, e.g. formal democracy.

Keywords: European Union, Croatia, Slovenia, democracy, development, home politics

Austria's European Policy and its Coordination and Decision-making System at the Turn of the 21st Century

Martin Jeřábek, p. 39–59

Abstract: The study describes Austria‘s relationship to the EU and the processes the country underwent in the past thirteen years as an EU member state. Due to its EU accession Austria went through a process of Europeanization. This paper analyses the top-down and bottom-up effects of this process. The author begins by asking to what extent Europeanization had an impact on the coordination mechanisms of Austrian politics, in particular, the executive and the legislative, and the specifi c features of the Austrian political system: federalism and corporatism. The analysis shows that the adaptation of institutions to EU model signifi cantly affected Austrian politics. The second part of the paper analyses the bottom-up effects, how domestic political processes infl uenced the Austrian European policy. Despite the strong Europeanization of Austria‘s domestic institutions the research found some problem junctures in the relationship between Austria and the EU. This included the issue of the coalition government that was formed with the participation of the FPÖ in 2000 and the sanctions other EU member states placed on Austria as a response. Another case occurred when Austria threatened to veto EU eastern expansion in 2001. On the basis of these two cases it was found that despite the adaptation of domestic institutions, domestic politics can still have a strong effect on European relations. However, the long-term trend in Austrian European policy indicates that the relationship between strong institutional adaptation and the country‘s positive pro-European policy is primarily harmonious.

Keywords: Austria, political system, European policy, coordination system, European Union, federalism and the EU, corporatism

Municipalities in the Federal Republic of Germany – Progress and Current Situation

Miroslava Pitrová, p. 60–75

Abstract: Researching the organization and functioning of public administration, especially self-government, is currently not a key topic of interest among most political scientists. This is why we will try to describe the public administration system in the Federal Republic of Germany in the following article. It will consider the principles on which the German public administration is based and how its second subsystem – municipal authorities – function in relation to the national state administration.Politics as a science offers interesting opportunities and resources for analyses of the way public administration functions. Aspects of the political science of public administration are important in understanding all the connections with public administration. The German example is not typical because there are various types and forms of municipal organization. Due to historical experience and evolution, four basic types of municipal organization developed in Germany, and they will be the main focus of our attention. We will deal with the specifi c features of municipal election systems, look at the variety of municipal political systems and the possibility of citizen involvement in the administration of public affairs. For political scientists public administration in Germany – its organization and function – is an interesting laboratory where we can study a progression which is very noteworthy. This article cannot explain all the subjects which are connected with this political phenomenon, but it will attempt to explain some of them.

Keywords: The Federal Republic of Germany, public administration, local authorities, municipalities, municipal organization, municipal elections systems.

DISCUSSION

Dušan Leška: National Identity, European Citizenship and European Identity after Entering the European Union – the Case of Slovakia

BOOK REVIEWS

Klára Bratová: Current Security Threats in the Western Balkans

Pavel Hlaváček: Beijing’s Strategy for the Twenty-First Century

Helena Hricová: Democratic Practice in Slovenia

Magdeléna Leichtová: Building Capitalism in Russia