Goetz, Klaus H. <br/><br/>
Governmentalizing central executives in post-communist Europe :  a four-country comparison 

 -  December 2001 
<br/><br/> This article compares the institutionalization of central ministerial executives in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland since the late 1980s. Under communism, the plicy formation and arbitration function of the central state apparatus was weakly developed: at the same time, the state bureaucracy was comprehensively politicized, as personnel policy emphasized political loyalty and reliability. In policy terms, state administration was "under-politicized", in personnel terms "over-politicized". Against  this background, the key challenge of  post-communist executive institutionalization has been to "governmentalize the  executive, i.e. to build up its policy-making capacity and to professionalize its staff. Executive reform has, accordingly, centred on attemps to concentrate policy formation in the central executive; to create a capable core execuvie around the  prime minister and e minister of finance; and to establish a career civil service. But this reform agenda has yielded mixed results and the configuration of central executives remains unstable 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Administração Central<br/>Função Pública<br/>Executivos do Núcleo<br/>Institucionalização<br/>Policy-Making
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Geographic Terms: </label><br/>Central and Eastern Europe