Jan‐hinrik Meyer‐sahling
Biographic Data
| ID | 4377724 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jan‐hinrik Meyer‐sahling |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jan‐hinrik |
| FAMILY NAME | Meyer‐sahling |
| SIGNATURE | SAHLING J H M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Nottingham |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8981-8201 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 627 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 16 |
Performance Rewards and Job Satisfaction in More and Less Developed Countries: Multi‐Level Evidence From Bureaucrats in 10 Countries
Do the same management practices lead to greater job satisfaction in poorer and richer countries? Despite the centrality of this question, prior research has not statistically assessed it through multi‐country studies. We address this omission for one quintessential OECD country management reform: linking rewards—pay and promotion—to performance. We argue that performance rewards matter more for job satisfaction in richer than in poorer countries…
Learning effects of anti-corruption reform in public organisations: Explanations From Social Psychological Theory
Existing studies based on institutional or rationalist approaches have limitations in explaining changes in individual ethical behaviour and thus propose social psychological models that can offer alternative explanations. We conduct surveys of over 5,000 civil servants in South Korea before and after the implementation of an anti-corruption policy in 2016. Our analysis shows the role of cognitive and social changes in shaping individual motivati…
Does political corruption reduce pro‐social behavior by bureaucrats? Lab experimental evidence from Bangladesh
Numerous studies assess how politicians control and shape bureaucracy. Yet, how politicians' behavior affects the norms and behaviors of bureaucrats through role modeling has not been studied. This is a curious omission, in light of evidence that social norms shape bureaucratic behavior. Through a lab experiment with over 900 bureaucrats in Bangladesh, we explore whether political corruption affects bureaucrats' pro‐social behavior and whether th…
Unethical leadership, moral compensation, and ethical followership: Evidence from a survey experiment with Chilean public servants
Numerous studies associate ethical leadership with ethical behavior in the public sector. By contrast, the effects of unethical leadership in the public sector have largely not been explored. Yet, unethical leadership need not beget unethical followership. Instead, we theorize that some bureaucrats may perceive unethical leadership as a moral threat and respond to it with moral compensation and greater ethical behavior. We provide evidence for ou…
Does citizen participation make public servants more satisfied with their jobs? It depends on whether they are Spectators or Participants
Is citizen participation in policymaking and implementation desirable? Numerous studies have explored its effects on policy outcomes and citizen attitudes. We, instead, examine its effects on public servants. Citizen participation changes public sector job characteristics and thus potentially job attitudes. Looking at job satisfaction, we argue that citizen participation negatively affects public servants who observe, but do not participate in ci…
Activating the “Big Man: Social Status, Patronage Networks, and Pro-Social Behavior in African Bureaucracies
Public service delivery by African states is often characterized as particularist, favoring ethnic, personal or political networks of those inside the state over universalist, pro-social services to citizens. One explanation for particularist service delivery focuses on societal patronage norms, with “Big Men” providing for members of their networks. Despite the prominence of this line of reasoning and the anecdotal prevalence of “Big Men” in pol…
Varieties of connections, varieties of corruption: Evidence from bureaucrats in five countries
Why do some bureaucrats engage in corruption for personal gain, yet others for political gain? We show that these forms of corruption frequently do not coincide and offer an explanation: bureaucrats hired based on political and personal connections have different identities and incentives which compel them to engage in corruption for political and personal gain respectively. List experiments with a unique sample of 6400 bureaucrats in five countr…
Do Bureaucrats Contribute to the Resource Curse? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in New Oil States
The resource curse literature argues that oil production reshapes the fiscal contract between citizens and the state: politicians become less responsive to citizen taxpayers and more likely to use public revenues for their own benefit. This paper examines whether and how bureaucrats influence this breakdown of the fiscal contract. Analysing results of a survey experiment conducted with government employees in Ghana and Uganda, we find that, when …
Exit, Voice, and Sabotage: Public Service Motivation and Guerrilla Bureaucracy in Times of Unprincipled Political Principals
Democratic backsliding has multiplied “unprincipled” political principals: governments with weak commitment to the public interest. Why do some bureaucrats engage in voice and guerrilla sabotage to thwart policies against the public interest under “unprincipled principals,” yet others do not? Despite its centrality in contemporary governance, this conundrum has not seen quantitative research. We address this gap with survey evidence from 1,700 Br…
(Extreme) political polarization and party patronage
The contemporary literature on political parties has identified their gradual but consistent shift away from civil society and towards the state. As parties are becoming ever increasingly dependent on state resources and exclusively interested in governing, as Mair (Ruling the void: The hollowing of western democracy [Verso Books, 2013]) suggested, and patronage is a fundamental to that relationship, the degree and modes of party patronage become…
Bureaucratic Professionalization is a Contagious Process Inside Government: Evidence from a Priming Experiment with 3,000 Chilean Civil Servants
Education is at the center of theories of how bureaucracies professionalize. Going back to Weber, the process toward a capable and professional bureaucracy has been viewed as driven by the entry of well‐educated, professional recruits. We argue that this perspective misses important dynamics within professionalizing bureaucracies—in particular, how bureaucrats inside government react when bureaucracies professionalize. Building on this insight, w…
Stepping out of the shadow of the past: How Career Attributes Shape Ministerial Stability in Post-Communist Democracies
How do career attributes affect the survival of post-communist ministers? We theorise that career attributes determine “desirability” of ministers, and therefore the length of their tenure. While political career attributes provide superior expertise and incentives, bureaucratic career attributes fall short on both “desirability” markers. Utilizing a unique data set of individual ministers in four post-communist countries in the first two decades…
Responding to Covid‐19 through Surveys of Public Servants
Responding to COVID‐19 presents unprecedented challenges for public sector practitioners. Addressing those challenges requires knowledge about the problems that public sector workers face. This Viewpoint essay argues that timely, up‐to‐date surveys of public sector workers are essential tools for identifying problems, resolving bottlenecks, and enabling public sector workers to operate effectively during and in response to the challenges posed by…
Merit recruitment, tenure protections and public service motivation: Evidence from a conjoint experiment with 7,300 public servants in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe
How can governments manage civil servants to enhance public service motivation (PSM)? Despite the centrality of PSM in public administration research, the effects of management practices on PSM remain understudied. We address this gap through a conjoint experiment with 7,300 public servants in five countries in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Our experiment assesses two practices: merit‐based competitions for recruitment versus discreti…
Un)principled principals, (un)principled agents: The differential effects of managerial civil service reforms on corruption in developing and OECD countries
Do management practices have similar anticorruption effects in OECD and developing countries? Despite prominent cautions against “New Zealand” reforms which enhance managerial discretion in developing countries, scholars have not assessed this question statistically. Our article addresses this gap through a conjoint experiment with 6,500 public servants in three developing countries and one OECD country. Our experiment assesses Weberian relative …
Oiling the bureaucracy? political spending, bureaucrats and the resource curse
The Causal Effect of Public Service Motivation on Ethical Behavior in the Public Sector: Evidence from a Large-Scale Survey Experiment
Public service motivation (PSM) and ethical behavior are central concerns in public administration. Yet, experimental evidence on the causes of ethical behavior and the causal effects of PSM remains scarce, curtailing our understanding of both. This article draws on a novel survey experimental design to improve this understanding. The design is based on a simple insight: asking about PSM can render salient PSM-oriented identities of respondents. …
Civil service management and corruption: What we know and what we don't
Numerous studies have linked a range of economic, social, and institutional variables with corruption in government. Yet, most of this literature overlooks the management of public officials themselves. This is a relevant omission: almost all corrupt exchanges involve public officials. This article reviews studies—36 in total—that do address civil service management and anti‐corruption. It finds that prior works assess a narrow set of civil servi…
Civil Service Laws, Merit, Politicization, and Corruption: The Perspective of Public Officials From Five East European Countries
Research on bureaucracy and corruption tends to concentrate on cross‐national research taking countries as the unit of analysis. Yet national‐level measures neglect large differences within countries. This article therefore takes the perspective of individual bureaucrats. It studies how public officials' experience with bureaucratic institutions affects corruption within their sphere of work. Based on a survey of central government officials in f…
Silent professionalization: EU integration and the professional socialization of public officials in Central and Eastern Europe
This paper applies theories of international socialization to examine the impact of European Union contact on the professional socialization of public officials in Central and Eastern Europe. Based on a survey of officials in seven new member states, the paper finds that daily work on European Union issues is associated with favourable attitudes towards merit-based civil service governance. The distinction between types of European Union contact …
Party patronage in contemporary democracies: Results from an expert survey in 22 countries from five regions
This Research Note presents a new dataset of party patronage in 22 countries from five regions. The data was collected using the same methodology to compare patterns of patronage within countries, across countries and across world regions that are usually studied separately. The Note addresses three research questions that are at the centre of debates on party patronage, which is understood as the power of political parties to make appointments t…
A Case of Partial Convergence: The Europeanization of Central Government in Central and Eastern Europe
This article compares the Europeanization of central government in four Central and Eastern European countries ( CEECs ): Estonia, Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia. Using a large N survey of ministerial civil servants, it finds that the Europeanization of central government is characterized by partial convergence. The scope of Europeanization is large and similar among CEECs , reaching widely and deeply into government ministries. Moreover, patterns …
Governing the post-communist state: Government alternation and senior civil service politicisation in Central and Eastern Europe
Recent debates on the transformation of the state in Central and Eastern Europe have centred on the impact of political competition on state politicisation. The presence of robust competition, including coherent governments and critical oppositions are said to reduce the potential for state politicisation. This article challenges this perspective. It concentrates on the impact of patterns of government alternation on senior civil service politici…
Differential Legacy Effects: Three Propositions on the Impact of Administrative Traditions on Public Administration Reform in Europe East and West
This article compares the status of historical legacies in explanations of administrative reform in Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. It addresses the puzzle that legacy effects in both regions are associated with institutional resilience and persistence even though the administrative history in these two regions differs considerably. The article clarifies the terminological differences between legacies, legacy explanations, legacy e…
The Durability of EU Civil Service Policy in Central and Eastern Europe after Accession: The Durability of Eu Civil Service Policy
This article examines the post-accession durability of EU civil service policy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs). Civil service professionalization was a condition for EU membership but the European Commission has no particular sanctions available if CEECs reverse pre-accession reforms after gaining membership. Comparing eight CEECs that joined the EU in 2004, the article finds that post-accession civil service developments are characterized …
Political time in the EU: Dimensions, Perspectives, Theories
The manner in which time is institutionalized is critical to how a political system works. Terms, time budgets and time horizons of collective and individual political actors; rights over timing, sequencing and speed in decision-making; and the temporal properties of policy matter to the distribution of power; efficiency and effectiveness of policy-making; and democratic legitimacy. This article makes a case for the systematic study of political …
The changing colours of the post‐communist state: The politicisation of the senior civil service in Hungary
This article examines claims that senior civil services in post‐communist Europe are subject to instability and politicisation, and that both features are at the centre of what amounts to the emergence of a distinct type of executive governance different from Western traditions. At the conceptual level, the article develops four modes of politicisation that differ with respect to the political control over the making and breaking of bureaucratic …
Party patronage in contemporary democracies: Results from an expert survey in 22 countries from five regions
This Research Note presents a new dataset of party patronage in 22 countries from five regions. The data was collected using the same methodology to compare patterns of patronage within countries, across countries and across world regions that are usually studied separately. The Note addresses three research questions that are at the centre of debates on party patronage, which is understood as the power of political parties to make appointments t…
Exit, Voice, and Sabotage: Public Service Motivation and Guerrilla Bureaucracy in Times of Unprincipled Political Principals
Democratic backsliding has multiplied “unprincipled” political principals: governments with weak commitment to the public interest. Why do some bureaucrats engage in voice and guerrilla sabotage to thwart policies against the public interest under “unprincipled principals,” yet others do not? Despite its centrality in contemporary governance, this conundrum has not seen quantitative research. We address this gap with survey evidence from 1,700 Br…
Governing the post-communist state: Government alternation and senior civil service politicisation in Central and Eastern Europe
Recent debates on the transformation of the state in Central and Eastern Europe have centred on the impact of political competition on state politicisation. The presence of robust competition, including coherent governments and critical oppositions are said to reduce the potential for state politicisation. This article challenges this perspective. It concentrates on the impact of patterns of government alternation on senior civil service politici…
Civil service reform in post-communist Europe: The Bumpy Road to Depoliticisation
This article seeks to explain why civil service reform trajectories have differed in post-communist Europe, and why reforms have so far not led to the de-politicisation of personnel policy. It argues that the communist legacy of over-politicised personnel policy, the mode of transition and the constellation of actors after the first free elections shaped the personnel policy and civil service reform dynamics in the period directly after the chang…
Civil Service Laws, Merit, Politicization, and Corruption: The Perspective of Public Officials From Five East European Countries
Research on bureaucracy and corruption tends to concentrate on cross‐national research taking countries as the unit of analysis. Yet national‐level measures neglect large differences within countries. This article therefore takes the perspective of individual bureaucrats. It studies how public officials' experience with bureaucratic institutions affects corruption within their sphere of work. Based on a survey of central government officials in f…
The Durability of EU Civil Service Policy in Central and Eastern Europe after Accession: The Durability of Eu Civil Service Policy
This article examines the post-accession durability of EU civil service policy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs). Civil service professionalization was a condition for EU membership but the European Commission has no particular sanctions available if CEECs reverse pre-accession reforms after gaining membership. Comparing eight CEECs that joined the EU in 2004, the article finds that post-accession civil service developments are characterized …
The EU timescape: From Notion to Research Agenda
This article outlines how the notion of an EU timescape may be developed into a fruitful research agenda. It sets out central tasks involved, including clarification of the concept of an EU timescape; of the key empirical questions to be asked; and of the status of political time in variable-oriented research. The article illustrates the potential value-added of a time-centred approach to the study of the EU by highlighting temporal issues in EU …
The Causal Effect of Public Service Motivation on Ethical Behavior in the Public Sector: Evidence from a Large-Scale Survey Experiment
Public service motivation (PSM) and ethical behavior are central concerns in public administration. Yet, experimental evidence on the causes of ethical behavior and the causal effects of PSM remains scarce, curtailing our understanding of both. This article draws on a novel survey experimental design to improve this understanding. The design is based on a simple insight: asking about PSM can render salient PSM-oriented identities of respondents. …
Differential Legacy Effects: Three Propositions on the Impact of Administrative Traditions on Public Administration Reform in Europe East and West
This article compares the status of historical legacies in explanations of administrative reform in Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. It addresses the puzzle that legacy effects in both regions are associated with institutional resilience and persistence even though the administrative history in these two regions differs considerably. The article clarifies the terminological differences between legacies, legacy explanations, legacy e…
Civil service management and corruption: What we know and what we don't
Numerous studies have linked a range of economic, social, and institutional variables with corruption in government. Yet, most of this literature overlooks the management of public officials themselves. This is a relevant omission: almost all corrupt exchanges involve public officials. This article reviews studies—36 in total—that do address civil service management and anti‐corruption. It finds that prior works assess a narrow set of civil servi…
The rise of the partisan state? Parties, patronage and the ministerial bureaucracy in Hungary
It is problematic to classify the relationship between political parties and the state in post-communist Hungary as a case of low or no party patronage and state politicization. A study of the ministerial bureaucracy reveals that the passing of public administration reforms has not provided an effective constraint against politicization, and that the politicization of the ministerial bureaucracy has increased over time in terms of extent, intensi…
Merit recruitment, tenure protections and public service motivation: Evidence from a conjoint experiment with 7,300 public servants in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe
How can governments manage civil servants to enhance public service motivation (PSM)? Despite the centrality of PSM in public administration research, the effects of management practices on PSM remain understudied. We address this gap through a conjoint experiment with 7,300 public servants in five countries in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Our experiment assesses two practices: merit‐based competitions for recruitment versus discreti…
Un)principled principals, (un)principled agents: The differential effects of managerial civil service reforms on corruption in developing and OECD countries
Do management practices have similar anticorruption effects in OECD and developing countries? Despite prominent cautions against “New Zealand” reforms which enhance managerial discretion in developing countries, scholars have not assessed this question statistically. Our article addresses this gap through a conjoint experiment with 6,500 public servants in three developing countries and one OECD country. Our experiment assesses Weberian relative …
The Institutionalization of Political Discretion in Post‐communist Civil Service Systems: The Case of Hungary
This article addresses the discrepancy between attempts to establish professional, de‐politicized civil services and the politicization of personnel policy at the central government level of post‐communist countries. It develops the concept of formal political discretion as an analytical tool for the assessment of how and to what extent legislative frameworks governing civil services provide institutional conditions for the de‐politicization of p…
Responding to Covid‐19 through Surveys of Public Servants
Responding to COVID‐19 presents unprecedented challenges for public sector practitioners. Addressing those challenges requires knowledge about the problems that public sector workers face. This Viewpoint essay argues that timely, up‐to‐date surveys of public sector workers are essential tools for identifying problems, resolving bottlenecks, and enabling public sector workers to operate effectively during and in response to the challenges posed by…
Getting on track: Civil service reform in post-communist Hungary
This article explains Hungary's status as a front-runner of civil service reform in post-communist Europe and assesses the consequences of the first reform outcomes for the institutionalization of the politics-administration nexus. It examines the degree of formal politicization of the ministerial civil service inherent in the Civil Service Act of 1992 and argues that the formal legal framework provides important instruments for political interve…
A Case of Partial Convergence: The Europeanization of Central Government in Central and Eastern Europe
This article compares the Europeanization of central government in four Central and Eastern European countries ( CEECs ): Estonia, Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia. Using a large N survey of ministerial civil servants, it finds that the Europeanization of central government is characterized by partial convergence. The scope of Europeanization is large and similar among CEECs , reaching widely and deeply into government ministries. Moreover, patterns …
Silent professionalization: EU integration and the professional socialization of public officials in Central and Eastern Europe
This paper applies theories of international socialization to examine the impact of European Union contact on the professional socialization of public officials in Central and Eastern Europe. Based on a survey of officials in seven new member states, the paper finds that daily work on European Union issues is associated with favourable attitudes towards merit-based civil service governance. The distinction between types of European Union contact …
Varieties of connections, varieties of corruption: Evidence from bureaucrats in five countries
Why do some bureaucrats engage in corruption for personal gain, yet others for political gain? We show that these forms of corruption frequently do not coincide and offer an explanation: bureaucrats hired based on political and personal connections have different identities and incentives which compel them to engage in corruption for political and personal gain respectively. List experiments with a unique sample of 6400 bureaucrats in five countr…
Activating the “Big Man: Social Status, Patronage Networks, and Pro-Social Behavior in African Bureaucracies
Public service delivery by African states is often characterized as particularist, favoring ethnic, personal or political networks of those inside the state over universalist, pro-social services to citizens. One explanation for particularist service delivery focuses on societal patronage norms, with “Big Men” providing for members of their networks. Despite the prominence of this line of reasoning and the anecdotal prevalence of “Big Men” in pol…
Oiling the bureaucracy? political spending, bureaucrats and the resource curse
(Extreme) political polarization and party patronage
The contemporary literature on political parties has identified their gradual but consistent shift away from civil society and towards the state. As parties are becoming ever increasingly dependent on state resources and exclusively interested in governing, as Mair (Ruling the void: The hollowing of western democracy [Verso Books, 2013]) suggested, and patronage is a fundamental to that relationship, the degree and modes of party patronage become…
Learning effects of anti-corruption reform in public organisations: Explanations From Social Psychological Theory
Existing studies based on institutional or rationalist approaches have limitations in explaining changes in individual ethical behaviour and thus propose social psychological models that can offer alternative explanations. We conduct surveys of over 5,000 civil servants in South Korea before and after the implementation of an anti-corruption policy in 2016. Our analysis shows the role of cognitive and social changes in shaping individual motivati…
Getting on track: Civil service reform in post-communist Hungary
This article explains Hungary's status as a front-runner of civil service reform in post-communist Europe and assesses the consequences of the first reform outcomes for the institutionalization of the politics-administration nexus. It examines the degree of formal politicization of the ministerial civil service inherent in the Civil Service Act of 1992 and argues that the formal legal framework provides important instruments for political interve…
Civil service reform in post-communist Europe: The Bumpy Road to Depoliticisation
This article seeks to explain why civil service reform trajectories have differed in post-communist Europe, and why reforms have so far not led to the de-politicisation of personnel policy. It argues that the communist legacy of over-politicised personnel policy, the mode of transition and the constellation of actors after the first free elections shaped the personnel policy and civil service reform dynamics in the period directly after the chang…
The rise of the partisan state? Parties, patronage and the ministerial bureaucracy in Hungary
It is problematic to classify the relationship between political parties and the state in post-communist Hungary as a case of low or no party patronage and state politicization. A study of the ministerial bureaucracy reveals that the passing of public administration reforms has not provided an effective constraint against politicization, and that the politicization of the ministerial bureaucracy has increased over time in terms of extent, intensi…
The Institutionalization of Political Discretion in Post‐communist Civil Service Systems: The Case of Hungary
This article addresses the discrepancy between attempts to establish professional, de‐politicized civil services and the politicization of personnel policy at the central government level of post‐communist countries. It develops the concept of formal political discretion as an analytical tool for the assessment of how and to what extent legislative frameworks governing civil services provide institutional conditions for the de‐politicization of p…
Héritages, concurrence entre les partis et gouvernance de la fonction publique dans la Hongrie postcommuniste
Legacies, Party Competition and Civil Service Governance in Post-Communist Hungary This paper examines the impact of the legacy of the past on administrative reform trajectories in post-communist East Central Europe. It argues that East Central Europe has numerous different legacies that have the potential to matter for post-communist reforms, that any legacy explanation of administrative reform in East Central Europe is required to spell out the…
The changing colours of the post‐communist state: The politicisation of the senior civil service in Hungary
This article examines claims that senior civil services in post‐communist Europe are subject to instability and politicisation, and that both features are at the centre of what amounts to the emergence of a distinct type of executive governance different from Western traditions. At the conceptual level, the article develops four modes of politicisation that differ with respect to the political control over the making and breaking of bureaucratic …
Varieties of legacies: A critical review of legacy explanations of public administration reform in East Central Europe
This article examines the status of historical legacies in debates on the reform of public administration in East Central Europe. It identifies limitations of existing accounts and derives three dimensions for the further development of legacy explanations of administrative reform in East Central Europe. First, legacy arguments tend to zoom in on the negative effects of the communist past. Yet there is not one but many legacies that matter for po…
Political time in the EU: Dimensions, Perspectives, Theories
The manner in which time is institutionalized is critical to how a political system works. Terms, time budgets and time horizons of collective and individual political actors; rights over timing, sequencing and speed in decision-making; and the temporal properties of policy matter to the distribution of power; efficiency and effectiveness of policy-making; and democratic legitimacy. This article makes a case for the systematic study of political …
The EU timescape: From Notion to Research Agenda
This article outlines how the notion of an EU timescape may be developed into a fruitful research agenda. It sets out central tasks involved, including clarification of the concept of an EU timescape; of the key empirical questions to be asked; and of the status of political time in variable-oriented research. The article illustrates the potential value-added of a time-centred approach to the study of the EU by highlighting temporal issues in EU …
Differential Legacy Effects: Three Propositions on the Impact of Administrative Traditions on Public Administration Reform in Europe East and West
This article compares the status of historical legacies in explanations of administrative reform in Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. It addresses the puzzle that legacy effects in both regions are associated with institutional resilience and persistence even though the administrative history in these two regions differs considerably. The article clarifies the terminological differences between legacies, legacy explanations, legacy e…
The Durability of EU Civil Service Policy in Central and Eastern Europe after Accession: The Durability of Eu Civil Service Policy
This article examines the post-accession durability of EU civil service policy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs). Civil service professionalization was a condition for EU membership but the European Commission has no particular sanctions available if CEECs reverse pre-accession reforms after gaining membership. Comparing eight CEECs that joined the EU in 2004, the article finds that post-accession civil service developments are characterized …
Governing the post-communist state: Government alternation and senior civil service politicisation in Central and Eastern Europe
Recent debates on the transformation of the state in Central and Eastern Europe have centred on the impact of political competition on state politicisation. The presence of robust competition, including coherent governments and critical oppositions are said to reduce the potential for state politicisation. This article challenges this perspective. It concentrates on the impact of patterns of government alternation on senior civil service politici…
A Case of Partial Convergence: The Europeanization of Central Government in Central and Eastern Europe
This article compares the Europeanization of central government in four Central and Eastern European countries ( CEECs ): Estonia, Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia. Using a large N survey of ministerial civil servants, it finds that the Europeanization of central government is characterized by partial convergence. The scope of Europeanization is large and similar among CEECs , reaching widely and deeply into government ministries. Moreover, patterns …
Civil Service Laws, Merit, Politicization, and Corruption: The Perspective of Public Officials From Five East European Countries
Research on bureaucracy and corruption tends to concentrate on cross‐national research taking countries as the unit of analysis. Yet national‐level measures neglect large differences within countries. This article therefore takes the perspective of individual bureaucrats. It studies how public officials' experience with bureaucratic institutions affects corruption within their sphere of work. Based on a survey of central government officials in f…
Silent professionalization: EU integration and the professional socialization of public officials in Central and Eastern Europe
This paper applies theories of international socialization to examine the impact of European Union contact on the professional socialization of public officials in Central and Eastern Europe. Based on a survey of officials in seven new member states, the paper finds that daily work on European Union issues is associated with favourable attitudes towards merit-based civil service governance. The distinction between types of European Union contact …
Party patronage in contemporary democracies: Results from an expert survey in 22 countries from five regions
This Research Note presents a new dataset of party patronage in 22 countries from five regions. The data was collected using the same methodology to compare patterns of patronage within countries, across countries and across world regions that are usually studied separately. The Note addresses three research questions that are at the centre of debates on party patronage, which is understood as the power of political parties to make appointments t…
Civil service management and corruption: What we know and what we don't
Numerous studies have linked a range of economic, social, and institutional variables with corruption in government. Yet, most of this literature overlooks the management of public officials themselves. This is a relevant omission: almost all corrupt exchanges involve public officials. This article reviews studies—36 in total—that do address civil service management and anti‐corruption. It finds that prior works assess a narrow set of civil servi…
Oiling the bureaucracy? political spending, bureaucrats and the resource curse
The Causal Effect of Public Service Motivation on Ethical Behavior in the Public Sector: Evidence from a Large-Scale Survey Experiment
Public service motivation (PSM) and ethical behavior are central concerns in public administration. Yet, experimental evidence on the causes of ethical behavior and the causal effects of PSM remains scarce, curtailing our understanding of both. This article draws on a novel survey experimental design to improve this understanding. The design is based on a simple insight: asking about PSM can render salient PSM-oriented identities of respondents. …
Responding to Covid‐19 through Surveys of Public Servants
Responding to COVID‐19 presents unprecedented challenges for public sector practitioners. Addressing those challenges requires knowledge about the problems that public sector workers face. This Viewpoint essay argues that timely, up‐to‐date surveys of public sector workers are essential tools for identifying problems, resolving bottlenecks, and enabling public sector workers to operate effectively during and in response to the challenges posed by…
Merit recruitment, tenure protections and public service motivation: Evidence from a conjoint experiment with 7,300 public servants in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe
How can governments manage civil servants to enhance public service motivation (PSM)? Despite the centrality of PSM in public administration research, the effects of management practices on PSM remain understudied. We address this gap through a conjoint experiment with 7,300 public servants in five countries in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Our experiment assesses two practices: merit‐based competitions for recruitment versus discreti…
Un)principled principals, (un)principled agents: The differential effects of managerial civil service reforms on corruption in developing and OECD countries
Do management practices have similar anticorruption effects in OECD and developing countries? Despite prominent cautions against “New Zealand” reforms which enhance managerial discretion in developing countries, scholars have not assessed this question statistically. Our article addresses this gap through a conjoint experiment with 6,500 public servants in three developing countries and one OECD country. Our experiment assesses Weberian relative …
Bureaucratic Professionalization is a Contagious Process Inside Government: Evidence from a Priming Experiment with 3,000 Chilean Civil Servants
Education is at the center of theories of how bureaucracies professionalize. Going back to Weber, the process toward a capable and professional bureaucracy has been viewed as driven by the entry of well‐educated, professional recruits. We argue that this perspective misses important dynamics within professionalizing bureaucracies—in particular, how bureaucrats inside government react when bureaucracies professionalize. Building on this insight, w…
Stepping out of the shadow of the past: How Career Attributes Shape Ministerial Stability in Post-Communist Democracies
How do career attributes affect the survival of post-communist ministers? We theorise that career attributes determine “desirability” of ministers, and therefore the length of their tenure. While political career attributes provide superior expertise and incentives, bureaucratic career attributes fall short on both “desirability” markers. Utilizing a unique data set of individual ministers in four post-communist countries in the first two decades…
Do Bureaucrats Contribute to the Resource Curse? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in New Oil States
The resource curse literature argues that oil production reshapes the fiscal contract between citizens and the state: politicians become less responsive to citizen taxpayers and more likely to use public revenues for their own benefit. This paper examines whether and how bureaucrats influence this breakdown of the fiscal contract. Analysing results of a survey experiment conducted with government employees in Ghana and Uganda, we find that, when …
Political science (33 works) · Law (24 works) · Law (21 works) · Politics (21 works) · Economics (20 works) · Public Administration (18 works) · Public Administration (18 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Political economy (14 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (12 works)