Central European Public Administration Review (E-Journal)
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The Potential Capacity of Hamlets: Comparative Research on Small European Municipalities
Full text linkThe main theories on small municipalities and the practices as seen in many a country involving the consolidation thereof presume that the contextual and structural conditions under which small municipalities have to perform work to their detriment and pose a threat to their viability. However, the institutional and human resource conditions in which small municipalities operate might work both ways, being profitable as well as disadvantageous. This paper investigates what is theoretically known and can be empirically deduced about the capacity of small municipalities in Europe. The conclusion is that existing research is inconclusive in its outcomes regarding the actual capacity of so-called hamlets and that existing data related to local capacity are unfit to measure such among these small municipalities. Nonetheless, the paper concludes that although no conclusions can be drawn on the actual capacity of small municipalities, their potential capacity is significant. This is concluded based on their legal protection, their inclination to focus on a limited number of policy areas, their access to central and regional decision-making, and especially the trust they receive from their residents.
 
Effectiveness of Judicial Protection against Administrative Silence in the Czech Republic
Full text linkThis paper is devoted to the issue of judicial protection in case of (or against) administrative silence (inactivity) and its effectiveness on the case study of the Czech Republic. The aim of judicial protection against administrative silence is to help solving or terminating administrative silence quickly, otherwise, an imaginary vicious circle is created. The purpose of the paper is to verify whether judicial protection is indeed effective by surveying the related legislation and court practice (especially the length of proceedings) dealing with the so-called inactivity. The methods of analysis applied are normative analysis, literature review, statistical analysis of decision-making activities of courts and deduction. Our findings establish that due to the excessive length of court proceedings and incomprehensible legal regulation it is difficult to view the judicial protection against administrative silence as being a speedy and effective instrument of remediation of inactivity on the part of administrative authorities. The results can serve as a ground to compare the situation with other similar countries and to exchange best practices
The Principle of Transparency in the Ukrainian Decentralisation Reform
Full text linkAfter the Revolution of Dignity (2013–2014), the new Ukrainian government set out a number of reforms, one of which – and a successful one so far – was decentralisation, involving territorial amalgamation and re-allocation of public revenues and outlays in favour of the newly-established amalgamated territorial communities (ATCs). This study aims to analyse whether decentralisation is supported by the realisation of the budget transparency principle. We attempt to fill the gap still existing in the research of public sector transparency in Ukraine, concerning the basic administrative level, hereby being limited to big cities and regions. The authors carried out an assessment of budget transparency in newly-established ATCs in four Ukrainian regions by applying a simplified methodology (‘snapshot assessment’) involving 11 measures that could be easily located on the ATC websites. In order to understand the reasons for a particular level of transparency, a polling of ATC heads was undertaken. The findings of the study demonstrate that the overall budget transparency in the newly established ATCs is rather low and subject to significant interregional variation. We find that the local officials overstate the existing level of budget transparency in their communities and are not proactive in their efforts to raise it. The importance of this article lies in substantiating the need for making budget transparency a priority for local officials, as well as in detailing the activity of the state and the local community in this fiel
Conflict of Interest: Legal and Ethical Aspects in Local Self-Government in Slovakia
Full text linkServing the public interest should be perceived as a fundamental goal of public administration. Regarding the complexity of social reality, various motives could influence public officials’ behaviour and decision-making. Conflict of interest is mostly discussed as an issue, which relates to activities of elected officials. In this sense, the paper concentrates on rules and standards connected with the conflict of interest, which have to be observed by the public officials. The paper tries to be an interdisciplinary insight and emphasizes the legal and ethical approaches to the examined issue. In this sense, the paper tries to examine the managing of risks and impacts of the examined issue at the local level of self-government in the Slovak Republic. The hypothesis is based on the precondition that ethical norms can define aspects of the conflict of interest more precisely than the relevant legal acts. In the paper, the methods of content analysis, abstraction, comparison and synthesis are involved. The benefit of paper is based on the finding that ethical norms could define important aspects of the conflict of interest more precisely than legal acts. The author presumes that complementarity of legal systems and ethical infrastructure could minimize contradictory and negative impacts of the conflict of interest. Based on this fact, local self-government units should adopt codes of ethics if they want to improve the managing of risks and impacts of the conflict of interest
Social Responsibility and Consensus Orientation in Public Governance: a Content Analysis
Full text linkOver the past two decades, social responsibility (SR) has become a key principle of many private sector entities that aim for business excellence. Similarly, in the public sector, the latest public governance models (PGMs) are based on the selected public governance principles (e.g. consensus orientation, participation, equity and inclusiveness) directed at connecting and including all types of stakeholders in decision-making and carrying out the activities of public sector organisations. Yet, there is insufficient reliable empirical evidence with respect to the relationship between social responsibility and the underlying principles of PGMs. The principal goal of the article is thus to identify the relationship between the concept of social responsibility and consensus orientation, which is one of the main theoretically and practically grounded principles of PGMs. This goal is addressed by applying the QDA Miner software package and analysing the contents of the 100 most relevant scientific papers from the Web of Science database. Specifically, the relationship between occurrence of the ‘consensus orientation’ principle and SR is identified and quantified, revealing the importance of the latter. Moreover, different PGMs are analysed in terms of consensus orientation and SR enforcement, providing tangible guidelines to help advance theory and practice in the domain of public governance
Effectiveness and Efficiency of Administrative Appeal Procedures: a Case Study on Tax Disputes in Romania
Full text linkThe aim of this article is to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of (internal) administrative appeal in tax or fiscal matters in Romania, in comparison to the more time and resource consuming court action against an administrative decision imposing fiscal obligations. In order to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of administrative appeals, we analysed data from the reports and documents issued by the Romanian National Agency for Fiscal Administration (NAFA) regarding efficiency related indicators, as well as dispute settlements and the amount of collected tax as effectiveness criteria. Furthermore, data regarding the results of the administrative procedure is compared to the results of the judicial procedure in terms of the number of admitted legal actions that annulled fiscal obligations. The results show that at least in the 2013–2017 period, the administrative procedure was both inefficient and ineffective since, on average, less than 7% of fiscal disputes were solved/settled in favour of the appellant. Moreover, the procedure was rather time consuming – although the disputes should have been settled in 45 days, the answer was provided after 70 days. Hence, the administrative procedure is often seen as a mere stepping stone toward subsequent legal/court actions, with no possibility to provide a satisfactory solution and thus lessen the workload of the court. Surprisingly, the taxpayers seem to consider the courts as a more favourable/efficient means as more than half of legal actions brought against fiscal administrative acts were settled in favour of the taxpayer, i.e. the fiscal obligations were annulled. The effectiveness of the preliminary administrative procedure was further analysed from multiple perspectives pertaining to the players that have a direct or indirect legitimate interest in this procedure. These are (i) the courts, which should/could benefit from a reduced workload if the procedure was effective, (ii) the taxpayers filing administrative appeals, which could have a feasible alternative to the time and resource consuming judicial means, and (iii) the fiscal bodies that issued fiscal administrative acts or that must respond to the appeals. The fact that this procedure is a mandatory predecessor of the judicial one and not an alternative means of dispute resolution seems to significantly impede its efficiency and effectiveness. The results can serve as a basis to analyse and compare the respective data in other countries with similar legal and tax systems
Determinants of Online Local Budget Transparency in Croatia and Slovenia
Full text linkAs a part of the public governance, transparency started to come forward during the New Public Management reforms, mostly for the evaluation of public sector efficiency. This article focuses on online local budget transparency (OLBT) in two neighbouring countries – Croatia and Slovenia. The article is pioneering in a comparative study of the determinants of budget transparency in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, based on a unique database and measure of transparency. The article tests the determinants of OLBT that reflect the accountability of local authorities and a cornerstone for public participation in the budget process. The following methodology was applied: using a data set of 768 Slovenian and Croatian local governments over the 2015–2017 period and testing it against several financial and socio-economic variables, and a random effects panel logistic regression, separately for Croatia, Slovenia, and a pooled sample. The results indicate that greater size of the population, higher administrative capacity and lower unemployment rate in individual local governments significantly contribute to higher levels of OLBT. This study demonstrates the possibility of developing a standardised measure of local budget transparency and using it to investigate the reasons for different levels of transparency in the two – and potentially other – CEE countries. The results of this and similar studies can serve as a basis for establishing cohesive local budget transparency policies for different countries and creating a combination of policy instruments to enhance transparency
Promise and Practice of the Principle of Equal Access to Information in the Danish Local Administration
Full text linkThis article presents an empirical based study of the implementation and effectiveness of freedom of information acts (FOIAs) in Danish municipalities. Even though the Nordic Countries are known for transparent public institutions, empirically based studies of access to information are rare. With the help of 33 students of public administration, 146 simple requests were sent covering 74.5% of all Danish municipalities. The primary purpose of the field experiment was to test the legal principle of identity-neutrality and equal treatment, as the profile of the applicants was varied: the first set of requesters represented “simple” identities, while the second set of requesters represented “qualified” identities. Besides, the requesters asked for two different types of information, one more controversial to reveal than the other. Hence, the study looked into variations in casework time, likelihood of rejection, communication form, etc. The results of the study showed that, in general, the municipalities handled the requests for access to information without difficulties and within the set deadlines, and no differential treatment of applicants based on their status and qualifications could be observed. In addition, the data indicates a significantly higher processing time in the requests for potentially controversial information. The study opened up grounds for future field experiments on FOIA(s). In the final part of the article, the general benefits of student involvement in research processes are discussed
Current Tendencies of Judicial Review as Reflected in the New Hungarian Code of Administrative Court Procedure
Full text linkThe continuing expansion of judicial review of administrative actions, as seen throughout Europe, led to the engulfment of the administrative judiciary towards the end of the last century. Review within a reasonable timeframe is hard to grant for this reason: the tensions between lawfulness and efficiency are amplified. The answers given to alleviate this tension raise questions that lie at the heart of the principle of separation of powers. This article aims to present some of respective tendencies, which lead to new equilibriums in the system of checks and balances between public administration and the judiciary. To concretise these tendencies, the article analyses some relevant solutions given by the very new code on administrative court procedures, the Hungarian Act No. I of 2017. The most important elements of the regulation of procedures for judicial review of administrative action are provided in a dogmatic and a comparative perspective showing the changes of rules and/or their interpretation through the judiciary. Thus, also important challenges regarding the present understanding of the doctrine of separation of powers are emphasised. The most important elements of the new Hungarian regulation are presented in a coherent system, which also gives insight on the codificational considerations. Moreover, the legislation and jurisprudence must deal with the highlighted aspects in any national and EU legal systems alike
The Impact of Transparency on the Citizen Participation in Decision- Making at the Municipal Level in Romania
Full text linkThe article analyses the implementation of the transparency law and investigates whether its adoption generated more citizens’ participation in the decision making process at municipal level in Romania. The research consisted of an analysis of the transparency reports that municipal authorities need to compile every year. We analysed the reports compiled by 28 cities and 5 sectors of the Bucharest municipality for the years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Additional information about the challenges of the implementation of the law was collected from previous studies conducted by nongovernmental organizations on this topic. The research showed that public institutions increased the transparency of the decision making process by disclosing draft normative proposals and the documents the proposals were based on. The level of citizens’ participation in the consultation and deliberation stages of the decision making process remained low over the period analysed, even though a small increase could be observed. The number of recommendations received on draft normative acts was low. The research showed that citizens’ suggestions had higher chances to be included in final decisions if they were voiced during Local Council meetings. Besides providing empirical insights in the implementation of the transparency law in Romania, the article provides the researchers with evidence that increased decisional transparency does not automatically lead to greater citizens’ involvement in the decision making process