Eastern Europe in transition, the case of Hungary

Abstract

The result of circumspect and considerate preliminary work, by 1990, the system of public administration characteristic of bourgeois, democratic and constitutional states was established in Hungary. The transformation of public administration is still far from complete, since fundamental reforms encompassing both structural and functional measures, and also the unified regulation of public sector human resources, urgently need to be effectuated. The continuous and rapid transformation exhausted public administration after a period and the reform programs with low efficiency discredited the ideas promoting the necessity of reforms themselves. Public administration weary of the reforms itself became gradually not supportive of, but passively resistant to the cause of the reforms, which merely reinforced the philosophy of NPM based on a neoliberal conception of the state implying that public administration cannot be reformed from within. In certain cases Hungary was under an excessive illusion concerning both NPM and EAS, it was more responsive to them than the other countries concerned. Today, however, as a party both to the European Union and EAS, Hungary with its specific experiences can contribute to the development of European public administration.Currently running complex program of the development of public administration alludes to a more considerate and subtle approach, which related to the consideration of international experiences sets forth that "any solution originating abroad or in the market may be applied exclusively with proper criticism and the examination of its effects".