<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This paper offers a broader reflection on the current and historical discourse related to the analysis of the effectiveness of economic sanctions. Is it possible to reliably measure the effectiveness of economic sanctions ? In addition to summarizing the literature in this area, the article points out numerous problems in the interpretation and use of terminology. Confusion about different approaches in this discipline creates an environment in which it is difficult to orient oneself or segregate objective information. This confusion affects the behaviour of national governments. National governments frequently resort to economic sanctions, even though the measurement of their effectiveness is unclear. The article aims to introduce partial and valid arguments related to the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the imposed sanctions. Moreover, its goal is to present the preferred approach how to measure the effectiveness. The paper concludes that universally valid metrics for measuring effectiveness are hardly achievable due to the inability to compare events across modern history, without taking into account the context. At the same time, there is neither a terminological nor a semantic consensus on the basic concepts, which makes the situation more complicated. One of the main issues is the inconsistent terminology, since many authors do not distinguish between effectiveness and efficiency. Thus, the author tends to interpret effectiveness as an ability to achieve the goals initially pre-set. Although this definition offers a rather loose view which does not allow too much comparison and generalization, it is, in the author’s view, the least “blurred” one. At the same time, the author encourages an individual approach to particular case reports and warns against attempting to econometrically and statistically capture something that is practically incommensurable or not measurable at all. Therefore, the author recommends, as a result of this literature overview, to stick to the perception of effectiveness (or its negation) as an ability (or a disability) <italic>to achieve predetermined goals</italic>. The value-added of this article is to contribute to the discussion about economic sanctions nowadays. It comes with conclusions about diverging approaches based on the unique, comprehensive literature review of respected authors. Also, the short list of case studies of what the author considers an example of effective and non-effective sanctions will be included.
</abstract>

The Effectiveness of Economic Sanctions: A Literature Review

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> In Public Administration, it is taken for granted that reforms are initiated and conducted by leaders. However, one can wonder whether change is indeed always coming from leadership and whether the concept thereof as the driving force behind change and the panacea for all the problems encountered during reforms is not a bit overrated in recent literature. This paper presents the argument that it is not the leaders but the employees in the teams and working groups and the experienced organizational members in particular who are the real carriers of reforms. It goes through the recent and older theoretical literature as well as through known empirical research regarding the matter and suggests that mainly co-workers are able to provide reform in terms of content, direction and practical solutions. The conclusion is that leadership is indeed an overrated factor in explaining reforms. The emphasis on leadership disregards an old-fashioned but perhaps still relevant concept, namely that working groups / project teams are oft en self-regulating, despite what leaders believe. Although empirical research taking organizational tenure into account is scarce and scattered, there is some evidence that the communities of practice are important for conserving, changing and developing organizational values and norms.In consequence, theorizing about reforms and especially the implementation thereof needs to pay more attention to horizontal relations in the organization - the role of colleagues and especially the role of experienced organizational members.</abstract>

Associate Professor, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Professor, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands

The Limits of Leadership

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> There appears to be a remarkable contradiction between what is happening in public-administration science and in public-administration practice. In the former, legal approaches have been displaced by managerial and political approaches. Th is shift sharply contrasts with the continuous legalization and juridification of publicadministration practice. Public-administration practice has gradually converged with the law. Lawyers and legal scholars applaud the convergence of the law and public administration as the ultimate realization of the ideal of the Rechtsstaat. A public-administration perspective should take a more critical stance. From a publicadministration perspective, the Rechtsstaat produces both functional and dysfunctional effects. Assessing these effects requires comparative and multi-disciplinary research. Comparative research will reveal different legal and administrative traditions both within Europe and between Europe and other parts of the world. The Rechtsstaat should therefore return onto the public-administration research agenda.</abstract>

Rule of Law or Law Overruled ? Why the Rule of Law Should Be on the Public Administration Research Agenda

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> According to Action Agenda 21, which was adopted at the Rio Conference in 1992, sustainable development is a major objective for local and global development. Economic growth, good living conditions, and protection of the earth’s natural environment are important to all people in the world. This article focuses on one aspect of sustainable development, i.e. on environmental sustainability. Research shows that local government can take a leading position in protecting the natural environment and disseminating information on it among stakeholders. However, our knowledge about the dissemination of environmental information practices among stakeholders is limited. The purpose of this research is to fill a gap in current knowledge, to describe and compare the practical work with dissemination of such information among stakeholders in Swedish and Polish municipalities. The questions to be answered are: What environmental information is collected and produced by the local government ? At what stakeholders is such information targeted ? and What effects does it have on decision-making by stakeholders in the investigated municipalities ? The study is based on state regulations, the homepages of municipal offices, and policy documents, official reports, and semi-structured interviews with key managers responsible for the protection of the natural environment in the studied municipalities. Data were collected from late 2015 to early 2017. This research indicates that dissemination of environmental information has a positive effect on the decision-making of internal stakeholders. In both countries, the municipal authorities follow the EU recommendations, resulting in innovative work and growing environmental awareness among the municipal authorities, the residents, and other stakeholders. Improvement of the natural environment is perceived as “a must” for the future. Nonetheless, especially larger municipalities face challenges because the production and dissemination of environmental information is time-consuming. In the long run, however, surprisingly positive effects on the local protection of the natural environment appear.</abstract>

Dissemination of Environmental Information and its Effects on Stakeholders’ Decision-Making: A Comparative Study between Swedish and Polish Municipalities

<abstract xml:lang="en"><title style='display:none'>Public Administration and Management Reforms in CEE: Main Trajectories and Results</title>The common feature of CEE systems is that they change drastically. Political systems change, e.g. from dictatorships to democracies, and their elites are removed. Democratic checks and balances are established. State structures are reshuffled, e.g. toward more decentralisation. The economic system changes its nature, e.g. from state monopolies to market systems with private firms. Societal and social systems with NGOs, not-for-profit organisations and citizen action groups are established and are designed for people to participate actively in the public debate and to become stakeholders of their society and their communities (Peters 1996).To achieve planned changes, CEE countries had to choose their strategies. In focusing on the administration and the management of public systems, five scopes of reform are possible, from very narrow and limited to a very widespread and broad span of reform (Pollitt and Bouckaert 2004). Choosing one of these models has tremendous practical implications for the content of a reform programme, for the choice of the reform projects, for the sequence and timing of the reform portfolio. It also requires different tactical choices to be made. One of the issues is how many degrees of freedom there are to reform the public sector.Just as in many other countries, mixed strategies have been chosen for public- sector reform in CEE countries, and these choices have changed over time. However, it seems that the span of reform has rather been broad than narrow. It also seems that tactics could have been more visible than strategy because of electoral cycles.This brings us to the question of the trajectories to move ahead. Our article, heavily based in the joint NISPAcee research project4 tries to respond to some selected dimensions of the question of what the common and different trajectories and selected outcomes of public administration / management reforms are in the CEE region.</abstract>

Public Management Institute, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

Institute of International Relations and Political Science, University of Vilnius, Lithunia

Faculty of Economics, Matej Bel University, Slovakia

Public Administration and Management Reforms in CEE: Main Trajectories and Results

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>In consideration of the fact that public administrations worldwide face a number of challenges, many governments are dedicated to improving the ethical climate in public administrations. The same issue is also the focus of the attention of many transnational associations. The basic goal is to ensure the development of comparable ethical climates, ethical behaviour in different public administrations and to develop comparable, suitable ethics infrastructures to enable this. Modern public administrations must bring ethical conduct to the fore and resist unethical behaviour. There are different ideas on how to build ethics infrastructures in public administrations, and examples of good practice that could facilitate the development of such infrastructures are found in the public and private sectors of different countries. In this paper, we connect ethics infrastructures and ethical climates. The evaluation of Slovenia’s ethics infrastructures is based on the framework prepared by the OECD, using its questionnaire developed by Victor and Cullen. The results show that there is no general relationship between ethics infrastructures and ethical climates in public administrations. Nevertheless, some determinants of ethics infrastructures correlate to a high degree to the ethical climate, the strongest impact on ethics climates being the ethical infrastructure’s determinant “public involvement and scrutiny”.</abstract>

An Analysis of the Ethics Infrastructure and Ethical Climate in Slovenian Public Administration

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Cross-organisational collaboration management has been an important topic in academic literature, representing the nexus of modern governance arrangements. Organisational boundaries are becoming increasingly blurry with continuous digitalisation through new interaction patterns, resulting in the proliferation of cross- organisational collaborations across sectors and within the public sector. This study contributes to the existing literature by analysing cross-organisational collaboration management within the public sector through the case of the Estonian Employment Register. The author conducted semi-structured interviews with engaged stakeholders and coded the data with a concept-driven and data-driven coding scheme for the analysis. The interviews were analysed for occurrences and co-occurrences. The case highlights the role of system context (pre-established connections, decentralisation, digital infrastructure), process challenges (differences in perspectives, organisation-centric approach, power imbalances) and management interventions (contingent leadership, shifting roles, trilateral connections) for cross-organisational collaborations. The findings demonstrate the importance of pre-existing informal connections in shaping the available alternatives for instruments. Digitally capable agencies can capitalise on opportunities for digital innovation through their technological capability and reputation. The key challenges remain with expanding the cognitive framework beyond the established interaction arenas to adapt to perspectives beyond the initial networks. The ability to maximise the potential of digital innovation is also contingent on designing compatible human interaction processes to manage machine interactions.
</abstract>

Cross-Organisational Collaboration Management of Digital Innovation in the Public Sector - The Case of the Estonian Employment Register

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This research article aims to provide an in-depth examination of the complex aspects of digital transformation, from an organizational management perspective. The study offers an overview of the prominent research interests and trends in this field, shedding light on organizational changes brought by digital transformation, and on the strategic shifts it requires. To achieve these objectives, the research utilizes bibliometric analysis techniques, specifically performance analysis and science mapping. The analysis is conducted using the VoSviewer software application, which efficiently integrates data from multiple databases, including Web of Science and Scopus. The findings reveal that digital transformation, within the context of organizational management, encompasses diverse research directions and themes that play a central role in its success. Key areas of focus include innovation, leadership, dynamic capabilities, digital innovation, and change management. These themes highlight the pressing need for organizations to navigate and thrive in the digital age. The research contributes to the understanding of digital transformation and its implications for organizational management, both in private and public organizations, highlighting the differences between the two.
</abstract>

Digital Transformation in Organizational Management: A Bibliometric Analysis

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The relative importance of various drivers of economic growth and prosperity has evolved over time, and innovation is the primary driver of economic growth for a growing number of countries. Innovations can be developed in countries where the state innovation policy is effectively implemented, and the state coordinates the subjects of innovation policy. The coordination requires integration, digitalization and sharing of information across departments and sectors. The objective of this paper is to describe how Uzbekistan’s innovation system has evolved during the last decade since Uzbekistan moved from a highly regulated mixed economy to an open market economy. In this process, we start by describing the national innovation system of Uzbekistan, describe some of the key changes in the innovation policy coordination system, the legal acts of reforming the public administration, the bodies responsible for the implementation of laws, monitoring and evaluating the fulfillment of the set strategic tasks. Then we will reveal the state’s role in coordinating and establishing an effective national innovation policy, reveal the theoretical aspects and compare them with the implementation in Uzbekistan. For these purposes, data from open and transparent sources from 2009 to 2021 are analyzed, and the impact of various factors on Uzbekistan’s economic and innovative development using econometric analysis is evaluated. The conclusion of the research consists of the recommendations that are given in order to improve the state innovation policy, establish communication and achieve the goals of the government.
</abstract>

Innovation Policy Coordination: The Role of Communication for Uzbekistan

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
In his address to the nation on September 1, 2020, Kazakhstani President Kassym- Jomart Tokayev pledged to promote mass sports and arts among youth. To achieve this, the Kazakhstani government launched ArtSport, a nationwide initiative to create new programs from swimming and dancing to sculpture. Nevertheless, the multi-million-dollar initiative was suspended in 2022 due to various problems and scandals. This article aims to understand and explain why ArtSport failed to achieve its policy goals despite the central government’s commitment and enormous investment. This article examines the nationwide initiative from the theoretical lens of the policy cycle to achieve the research aim. Adopting a qualitative approach to a case study, it combines the analysis of official and non-official documentary sources with anonymous elite interviews of senior government officials at the regional Culture and Sports Committees. Tracing the policymaking process from agenda setting to implementation, we argue that although the Government’s intentions were good, the policy design behind ArtSport had critical weaknesses that led to failure in policy implementation. These weaknesses include the initiative’s overly ambitious scope, the technical shortcomings of the ArtSport online platform, and lack of funds. As a result, ArtSport failed to achieve its expected outcomes, andthe initiative was also marked by embezzlement and corruption scandals. Given the Government’s decision to continue with ArtSport through policy changes and additional funding, this article develops practical recommendations to improve the program design and implementation process.
</abstract>

Public Policy Failure: The Case of Arts and Sports Policy in Kazakhstan

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
World economies have faced numerous crises throughout history. Fiscal issues have accordingly become a crucial aspect of economic policy discussions, particularly in Eastern Europe, a region shown to be especially vulnerable to the recent economic shocks. The paper therefore aims to provide a bibliometric examination of trends in fiscal research via the lenses of major economic and financial crises. The bibliometric analysis is based on 6,640 documents published between 1970 and 2022 and indexed in the Scopus database. The results reveal that fiscal research associated with crises has grown sharply over time, with significant bursts one year following each major economic and financial crisis. The most cited journal articles in fiscal research highlighted the following issues in all countries, including Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries: economic reform policies (1970-1997), economic development and financial conditions (1998-2008), crises in Europe and post-crisis recovery (2009-2019) and post-crisis recovery and effects (of the COVID-19 pandemic) on the public and business sectors (2020-2022). As well as identifying key countries and journals, although diverging in approach and scope the findings show shared interests in macroeconomic policy, fiscal stability, and the impact of crises on economic performance and public finance. Developed countries have addressed complex global economic issues and advanced development, whereas Central and Eastern European nations have focused on the transition from planned to market economies. This observation reflects their distinct economic paths and fiscal research interests, as revealed in detailed content analysis by subperiods. The findings maybe of benefit for both the scientific community and evidence-based policymaking.
</abstract>

Mapping Fiscal Research Trajectories through Bibliometric Analysis: Echoes of Global Crises in Central and Eastern Europe

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Digital transformation changes how private and public organisations conduct their business, stressing the importance of collaboration with various stakeholders. The public sector, especially local government, is forced by citizens’ demands to change how it operates. This research examines the characteristics of existing literature on collaborative governance and digital transformation and explores the unevenness of digital transformation due to the broad autonomy granted to local governments. Qualitative methods were used, conducting in-depth interviews, advanced observations, and detailed data collection from government agencies, NGOs, and citizens of West Java, Indonesia. The enquiries reveal that governments faces silos and fragmented approaches. The results contribute to the literature, serve as a reference for improving the role of local government in collaborative digital transformation, and provide greater legitimacy in the public policy process. In the context of local government, the success of digital transformation initiatives in West Java can be attributed to effective collaboration and facilitative leadership from implementing the Penta-helix strategy and establishing Jabar Digital Service (JDS) as a dedicated unit for managing digital transformation.
</abstract>

Collaborative Approach on Digital Government Transformation: In-Depth Analysis from Expert Interview

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The New Public Management movement regards citizens as customers and, accordingly, focuses on the quality of services provided by public-sector organizations. Since this approach negatively affected democratic values, there has been a shift of the focus from consumer satisfaction and quality of services to quality of governance. The latter implies the improvement of the relationship between government and citizens as active members of the community. Over the last twenty years, participatory budgeting (PB) has become a popular form of co-production intended to improve the quality of local governance. The aim of the article is to provide a comparative analysis of the use and role of PB in Croatia, Poland and Slovakia and to identify the models of PB used in selected countries. In order to compare the case studies of municipalities in selected countries, a qualitative analysis has been used and the classification of PB models applied. Most analyzed local units use the “Porto Alegre adapted for Europe” model, but the “Consultation on public finances”, “Representation of Organized Interest” and “Proximity participation” models are also represented. The main findings are that PB indeed enables better allocation of public sources according to citizens’ needs (various public services were delivered following the trend of social innovation and co-creation), but the problem lies in the low amount assigned for PB from public budgets and the relatively low interest of citizens to participate in the PB processes. PB might also bring certain risks linked with its implementation, e.g. misuse of the idea for political reasons or additional costs of projects delivered in the PB process.</abstract>

Faculty of Law, University of Zagrebv, Zagreb, Croatia

Department of Public Economics and Regional Development, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia

Department of Regional Development and Quantitative Methods, Kazimierz Pulaski University of Technology and Humanities in Radom, Radom, Poland

Participatory Budgeting: A Comparative Study of Croatia, Poland and Slovakia

<abstract xml:lang="en"><title style='display:none'>Technological Change: A Central yet Neglected Feature of Public Administration</title>This overview paper has two aims. The first is to indicate that technological change has been a somewhat neglected, or at the least esoteric, topic within the academic field of public administration. The second is to argue that this neglect is damaging for the PA community, because technological change is actually fundamental to developments in public administration, in a variety of ways.In order to demonstrate these two points, a wide range of literature is called upon, across many sectors.In conclusion a framework is offered to encourage the kinds of analysis of technological change that should ensure strong links with the central concerns of public administration scholarship.</abstract>

Technological Change: A Central yet Neglected Feature of Public Administration

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This article exposes contemporary approaches to transparency and trust. It explores the links between the two concepts in 10 countries between 2007 and 2014, using open-data indexes and access-to-information requests as proxies for transparency. So far, most studies have focused on conceptual models, specific aspects of transparency in particular case studies or have compared legal frameworks from different countries. Here, data about citizens’ requests to get access to administrative documents have been gathered. This dataset, combined with existing indexes on open data and government, has enabled us to establish a national ranking, particularly useful in a comparative perspective. Data about trust have been collected from reports published by international organisations. Key findings prove that there is no sharp decline of trust in government in all countries considered in this article. They also tend to show that transparency and trust in government are not systematically positively associated. Therefore, this article challenges the common assumption, mostly found in the normative literature, about a positive interrelation between the two, where trust in government is conceived as a beneficial effect of administrative transparency. Finally, it suggests that mis(trust) may be considered a key driver of transparency and would as such call for more transparency from public bodies.</abstract>

Transparency and Trust in Government (2007–2014): A Comparative Study

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The goal of this paper is to document and to analyse public administration reform dynamics and outcomes in three selected areas – transparency and accountability, civil service and local self-governments.The high level of potential access to government information in Slovakia does not “produce” increased accountability, predictability and also does not effectively serve as a tool to control corruption. We argue that citizens are not only victims, but also accomplishers: their tolerance for corruption, excessive bureaucracy and rentseeking is confirmed by many existing studies.Concerning civil service reform, Slovakia shows a substantial reform reversal towards politicisation and centralisation after 2001, which clearly threatens the fundamental features of democratic governance. Soon after the EU accession in 2004 major regressive changes took place, and the Civil Service Office was abolished in 2006. The new legislation in force from 2017 (forced by the EU conditionality) should return the Slovak civil service back on the right track – let us to see.With regard to self-government the reforms aimed towards the establishment of more independent local and regional self-government. However, the major issue here is the extreme fragmentation on the municipal level – almost 3,000 municipalities in the country, most of them bellow 1,000 inhabitants. Many studies confirm that amalgamation (or at least functional amalgamation) is necessary – but there is no political will to start it.What are the main lessons from the Slovak case ? The information provided indicates that the Slovak Republic belongs to the “standard” group of CEE countries – after the first wave of democratisation reforms immediately after 1989, most of the later changes were realised “thanks to” external motivations and pressures – and not always really welcomed. The specific issue, however, is the decentralisation reform in 2000 – 2005. This change, providing really fragmented local self-government by extra rights and responsibilities, was internally driven, with positive results from the point of view of self-government principles, but with many hurdles caused by too large a number of too small municipalities.</abstract>

Public Administration Reforms in Slovakia: Limited Outcomes (Why ?)

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Though participatory budgeting (PB) is often discussed as a tool to bolster the level of civic participation and the quality of democracy, empirical research on the subject offers ambiguous results. In the Czech Republic, PB was introduced 5 years ago, and the number of implemented PBs has since increased substantially. The purpose of this article is to evaluate whether the use of PB is associated with higher voter turnout in municipal and parliamentary elections. Voter turnout in Czech municipalities that implemented PB is analyzed and compared with the control group of municipalities without PB. Considered by type of election, we found that the impact of PB use on voter turnout is higher for local elections than it is for national elections, which is in line with our assumptions. However, our results were significant for Prague districts only. Participatory budgeting could increase voter turnout in local election, but there are other factors that must be considered.</abstract>

Does Participatory Budgeting Bolster Voter Turnout in Elections ? The Case of the Czech Republic

Publication Ethics Statement

Instructions for Authors

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy

The Journal of NISPAcee

Online ISSN: 1338-4309  The Journal is predominantly devoted to public administration, public policy and public governance issues in Central and Eastern Europe, but high-level submissions...

Impact Factor

Five Year Impact Factor

Cite Score

SNIP

MNiSW

Google Scholar h5-index

Google Scholar h5-median

Online ISSN: 1338-4309  The Journal is predominantly devoted to public administration, public policy and public governance issues in Central and...

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 17 (2024): Issue 1 (June 2024)

Volume 16 (2023): Issue 2 (December 2023)

Volume 16 (2023): Issue 1 (June 2023)

Volume 15 (2022): Issue 2 (December 2022)

Volume 15 (2022): Issue 1 (June 2022)

Volume 14 (2021): Issue 2 (December 2021)

Volume 14 (2021): Issue 1 (June 2021)

Volume 13 (2020): Issue 2 (December 2020)

Volume 13 (2020): Issue 1 (June 2020)

Volume 12 (2019): Issue 2 (December 2019)

Volume 12 (2019): Issue 1 (June 2019)

Volume 11 (2018): Issue 2 (December 2018)

Volume 11 (2018): Issue 1 (June 2018)

Volume 10 (2017): Issue 2 (December 2017)

Volume 10 (2017): Issue 1 (June 2017)

Volume 9 (2016): Issue 2 (December 2016) Openness, Transparency and Ethics in Public Administration: Do they Support Each Other?

Volume 9 (2016): Issue 1 (June 2016)

Volume 8 (2015): Issue 2 (December 2015) Issue Title: Towards Meaningful Measurement: Performance Management at the Crossroads of Internal Efficiency and Social Impacts, Issue Editors: Juraj Nemec, Gyorgy Hajnal Wouter van Dooren Jarmo Vakkuri Aleksander Aristovnik

Volume 8 (2015): Issue 1 (June 2015)

Volume 7 (2014): Issue 2 (December 2014) Special Issue: Strong Local Governments: Community, Strategy, Integration, Editors: Juraj Nemec, Calin Hintea, Bogdana Neamtu, Colin Copus, Linze Schaap

Volume 7 (2014): Issue 1 (June 2014)

Volume 6 (2013): Issue 2 (December 2013)

Volume 6 (2013): Issue 1 (June 2013)

Volume 5 (2012): Issue 2 (December 2012) The Politics of Agency Governance

Volume 5 (2012): Issue 1 (June 2012)

Volume 4 (2011): Issue 2 (December 2011) Law and Public Management Revisited

Volume 4 (2011): Issue 1 (June 2011) Editors: Juraj Nemec, Geert Bouckaert, Wolfgang Drechsler and Gyorgy Jenei

Volume 3 (2010): Issue 2 (December 2010) Public Management Now and in the Future: Does Technology Matter?, Editors: Wolfgang Dreschler, Rebecca Moody, Christopher Pollitt and Mirko Vintar

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy

The Journal of NISPAcee

Tutti i volumi ed i numeri in questa rivista