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The public administration reform implemented in Slovakia after the parliamentary election of 1998 was in fact the second wave of reform in Slovak public administration. After the successful overthrow of the communist regime at the very end of the 1980s and early 1990s, an authoritarian style of public policy-making represented by the Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar was operated from 1994-1998. Centralization, instead of decentralization, was the priority of his government, and Slovakia was excluded from negotiations for membership in the EU and NATO. However, the party of Vladimír Mečiar moved into opposition after the parliamentary election of 1998, and the new ruling party began with a few ambitious reforms including the second wave of public administration reform. It was built on the principles of decentralization as well as modernization. This article is aimed at this second wave of public administration reform in Slovakia. Its author evaluates its content and impacts.

 

Key words: public administration reform, Slovakia, decentralization, regional government, local government, local state administration

 

Daniel Klimovský, PhD. is lecturer and researcher at the Department of Regional Science and Management, Faculty of Economics, Technical University of Košice, Slovakia. He is also a director of the NGO Slovak Political Institute. He deals with both public policy-making at the local and regional levels and public administration with special regard to local and regional governments. Contact: daniel.klimovsky(at)tuke.sk, daniel.klimovsky(at)spinstitut.sk.

 

Cite this article:
Klimovský Daniel. Public Administration Reform in Slovakia after the Parliamentary Election in 1998. Innovative Issues and Approaches in Social Sciences, vol.3, no.3:6-28, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.12959/issn.1855-0541.IIASS-2010-no3-art01

Digital Object Identifier(DOI): http://dx.doi.org/10.12959/issn.1855-0541.IIASS-2010-no3-art01

View full text in pdf: http://www.iiass.com/pdf/IIASS-2010-no3-art01.pdf