Public Administration Education in a Legalistic Setting: New Tendencies in Hungarian Public Administration and Training

• Authors: Márton Gellén
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Th e article examines the recent developments in public service training in Hungary and draws conclusions for the future. Hungary is considered to be part of the legalistic culture of European PA; therefore we analyze the connection between the legalistic approach as a cultural environment of PA practice and PA education as an influential factor of changing this environment. Th e empirical part of the research contains three elements: analysis of the professional training of civil service, the content of PA university training and the composition of professions within the central civil service. Th e empirical findings on these three dimensions are analyzed in light of recent structural changes of PA university education and professional training. Under a Government Decree issued in 2012, the National University of Public Services was appointed by the Government to be in charge of PA education and training. Th e university itself was recently created by the merger of law enforcement, military and civil PA universities (academies). Th is structural change can be characterized by centralization and, to a certain extent, simplification, too. Th e restructuring of PA training is completed by the concept of the Government making the fields of public service permeable, open to each other. Th e university itself is a test field for this concept since police and military students have the opportunity to study civil PA courses. Th e need for this kind of cross-learning is supported by the new phenomenon that defense and policing are gradually becoming more civilian in their character, while traditional training in these fields must undergo serious changes too. Although the article states that the basic framework of public administration education - as a major driver of public administration culture - is still dominantly legalistic, it also introduces the ways in which the new public-administration education system has tried to change the content of its degree programs and how it has attempted to have an impact on the entire public-administrative system to move from procedural orientation to a more solution-oriented mindset.

Keywords

EN

legalistic education; law; law and public administration; transition countries; regime change; Central and Eastern Europe; economic crisis

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 53-67

Dates

published

2013-12-01

online

2013-12-31

Contributors

author

Márton Gellén

References

• Drechsler, Wolfgang. 2005a. “Th e Re-Emergence of ‘Weberian’ Public Administration aft er the Fall of New. Public Management: Th e Central and Eastern European Perspective.” Halduskultuur 6, 94 - 108.
• Drechsler, Wolfgang. 2005b. “Th e Rise and Demise of the New Public Management.” Post-Autistic Economics Review 33 (14 September 2005). Available at http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue33/Drechsler33.htm (last accessed 21 April 2013).
• Coursebook for Civil Service Basic Exam: http://www.nki.gov.hu/kepzesek-vizsgak/vizsgak/koezigazgatasi-alapvizsga
• Coursebook for Civil Service Advanced Exam: http://www.nki.gov.hu/kepzesekvizsgak/vizsgak/koezigazgatasi-alapvizsga
• Fisher, Bruce D. 2000. “Positive Law as an Ethic: Illustrations of the Ascent of Positive Law to Ethical Status in the Commercial Sector.” Journal of Business Ethics 25(2), 115 - 127.[Crossref]
• Gajduschek, György. 2008. Rendnek lenni kellene: Tények és elemzések a közigazgatás ellenőrzési és bírságolási tevékenységéről. Budapest: KSZK.
• Gellén, Marten. 2012. “Does Centralization Serve Effi ciency ? De-agencification in Hungary.” NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy. Special Issue: Th e Politics of Agency Governance 5(2), 67 - 88.
• Hajnal, György. 2013. “Re-visiting National Distinctiveness: A Survey of Public Administration Education in Europe.” Presented at the Sixth Trans-European Dialogue in Public Administration (TED6), 6 - 8 February, Potsdam, Germany.
• Hajnal, György. 2008. “Public Management Reforms: Hungary.” In Geert Bouckaert, Juraj Nemec, Vitalis Nakrošis, György Hajnal and Kristiina Tõnnisson (eds). Public Management Reforms in Central and Eastern Europe. Bratislava, Slovakia: NISPAcee Press, 121 - 150.
• Hajnal, György. 2003. “Diversity and Convergence: A Quantitative Analysis of European Public Administration Education Programs.” Journal of Public Aff airs Education 9(4), 245 - 258.
• Hintea, C., Ringsmuth, D. and Mora, C. 2006. “Th e reform of the higher education public administration programs in the context of public administration reform in Romania.” Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences. (16), 40 - 46.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/nispa-2013-0006