Predestining Ineffectuality: Administrative Theory and the Early Soviet State / Stanley Vanagunas. pp. 17-26

Creating a New Civil Service System on the Ruins of the Soviet Bureaucracy / Georg Sootla. pp. 27-46

Restructuring the State in Latin America in an Era of Transitions / Lawrence S. Graham. pp. 47-63

Soviet Administration in Estonia: Continuity and Shifts in Attitudes in the Course of Reform / Harry Roots, Natalia Karotom. pp. 65-84

Transitions in the Public Service Sector of the Former German Democratic Republic after 1989/90: The German Experience (The Absorption Model) / Rupert Eilsberger. pp. 85-98

Reforming Local Government in Bulgaria: Bringing Democracy to the People / Ljudmil Georgieve. pp. 99-126

Transition in Slovenia from a Cooperative Perspective / Mik Strmecki. pp. 127-132

The Local Response to Democracy and Bureaucracy: The Case of Slovakia / Juraj Nemec. pp. 133-150

The Role of Public Administration in the Consolidation of Democracy in Portugal / Rui Afonso Lucas, Joao Francisco de Magalhaes Ilharco. pp. 151-164

Transitions from Authoritarianism: The Case of Spain / Manuel Villoria Mendieta, Laura Huntoon. pp. 165-188

Modernizing Public Organization from a Client/Citizen Perspective: The Experience of Brazil / Paulo Roberto Motta. pp. 189-206

Redemocratization and the Modernization of the State: The Alfonsín Era in Argentina / Oscar Oszlak. pp. 207-228

A Re-examination of the Political/Administrative Interface with Particular Reference to South Africa's Recent Democratic Experience / Christopher Thornhill. pp. 229-244

The European Union and Public Administration Development in Central and Eastern Europe / Tony Verheijen. pp. 245-260

From Public Administration Reform to European Integration: Cooperation between the European Union and the Transitional States of Eastern and Central Europe / Paul Collins. pp. 261-275

Reforming Post-Socialist Federations: Can It Really Work? / Zeljko Sevic. pp. 275-290

Comparative Overview and Conclusion / Randall Baker. pp. 291-296

Baker and his colleagues provide a blend of the theoretical and the empirical evidence in an examination of the nature of bureaucracy under non-democratic, authoritarian forms of government, whether on the right, as in Portugal, or the left, as in Bulgaria. In all these instances, the bureaucracy was constructed to serve the distorted interests of centralized, unaccountable power. Following the remarkable spread of democracy in the seventies in Iberia, the eighties in much of Latin America, parts of Asia and Africa, and the nineties in the former USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries, the main focus was on reforming the economy and the political institutions.
Distinguished scholars concentrate on the inherited bureaucracy--the arm of government with which the people most often have to deal. They highlight the undemocratic, and sometimes antidemocratic, nature of the civil service that is supposed to serve democracy. Others consider the nature of reform as experienced, and as needed, why there is no major policy for real reform of the bureaucracy in many countries, and the similar experience of reforming from the left and the right. Contributors discuss specific experiences as case studies and examine the more general question of what lessons can be learned from this unique perspective into comparative public administration reform. Essential reading for scholars, students, policy makers, and others involved with comparative government and public administration.