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1. A Hard Rain'? Reforming the Civil Service

Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
In this video, the first in our season on the future of British democracy, Robert Saunders (MEI Co-Director) hosts Hugh Pemberton (The Official History of the British Civil Service), Wendy Williams (Lessons Learned Review into the Windrush Scandal) and Jill Rutter (Senior Research Fellow, The UK in a Changing Europe).
Topic:
Labor Issues, Democracy, Civil Servants, Land Reform, and Civil Services
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

2. Glass half full? Or half empty? Civil service professionalization in the Western Balkans between successful rule adoption and ineffective implementation

Author:
Jan-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP)
Abstract:
This paper examines the professionalization of the civil service in the Western Balkans in the context of European integration. It focuses on the fit of civil service systems with European principles of administration as applied by SIGMA and the European Commission to accession states. The analysis distinguishes ten domains of civil service management and three levels of institutionalisation including formal rules, the quality of implementation and the attitudes of civil servants towards European principles. Based on extensive documentary research, personal interviews and a web-based survey of ministerial civil servants, the analysis reveals that formal-legal frameworks fit the European principles to a considerable extent. The main challenge for civil service developments in the Western Balkans concerns the ineffective implementation of formal rules. Even if formal rules and procedures are routinely applied, they do not reach expected outcomes such as merit selection and impartial behaviour of civil servants in policy-making and implementation. Finally, it is shown that civil servants partially support the European principles. In particular, discretionary approaches to civil service management have become increasingly popular in the region. The conclusion explores potential explanations of the emerging pattern of civil service professionalization in the Western Balkans.
Topic:
Regional Integration, Civil Servants, and Professionalization
Political Geography:
Europe and Balkans

3. Security Vetting

Author:
Robert Muharremi
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS)
Abstract:
Security clearance process is among the most important pillars of the security sector in the country. However, despite that we are dealing with a new system of verification, it is compromised and greatly challenged because of the political implications, the clan Individual decisions to grant or denial of a security clearance for civil servants and police personnel and intelligence. As a result, the report identifies shortcomings in the implementation of the Law on Classification of Information and Security Clearances and weaknesses in defining the decision to reject the security permissions.
Topic:
Intelligence, Police, Civil Servants, Vetting, and Security Clearance
Political Geography:
Europe, Kosovo, and Balkans

4. Ethnic Data Collection: The Case of the Civil Service in Eastern Europe

Author:
Oleh Protsyk and Konstantin Sachariew
Publication Date:
02-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
Abstract:
Representative bureaucracies are an important indicator of ethnically inclusive societies. Minority group support for the policies and institutions of a state is often directly linked to the extent to which these groups are being represented, not only in politics but also in the state apparatus. A bureaucracy that reflects the cultural and ethnic diversity of the population is also likely to be more responsive to the needs and aspirations of minority groups in multiethnic societies. A substantial body of academic research in this area suggests that there is significant empirical support for this responsiveness thesis. The normative appeal of the representative bureaucracy concept has yet to be translated across most of Eastern Europe into specific policies designed to make the actual practice of civil service recruitment and promotion more open to minorities. In fact, what is often found by ECMI and other organizations working on various aspects of minority participation in public life is a lack of even basic systematic data on levels of minority inclusion. The lack of this type of data is often attributed to national legal provisions regulating personal data collection. In particular, ECMI research on minorities in public bureaucracy was hindered by the existence of numerous limitations on possibilities for collecting primary data or on obtaining access to the data already available. A similar problem has arisen in relation to ECMI research on socioeconomic exclusion of minorities, for which it has been difficult to obtain minority-related data on employment, education and health services. This paper begins by outlining the importance of minority civil service inclusion in the general discussion of minority participation in public life, so as to demonstrate the salience of the issue in recent academic and policy discussions of minority issues in the European context. It then turns to an analysis of how legal norms and policies in the areof bureaucratic recruitment and promotion affect the availability of data on minority representation in civil service. Finally, this paper will discuss the options and strategies available to the researcher in situations of limited availability/poor quality of official data. It briefly examines the utility of approaches such as the analysis of employment rosters using algorithms based on last names, snowball sampling techniques, interviewing, and requesting data from ethnic minority organizations.
Topic:
Civil Society, Ethnicity, Bureaucracy, Data, and Civil Servants
Political Geography:
Europe