In search of sustainable public administration: What should, could, or must be done.

• Author: Zurga, Gordana
• Position: POLSCI PAPERS - Report

Introduction

The rationale behind searching for sustainable public administration derives or, at least, has been strengthened by the last economic crisis. Namely, the crisis placed a mirror in front of national states with respect to their public administrations. Lack of control mechanisms caused a crisis situation for most of them and came unexpectedly and with a full effect. Due to the complexity and pervasiveness of the crisis, state governments have received the role of crisis managers; many states initiated the process of redefining the role of government and its administration under the changed conditions of economic operations.

According to Pollitt (2009), three basic approaches of coping with the crisis and facing restricted budget sources for functioning of a state emerged: linear cutting, increasing efficiency, and centralized priorities setting. Especially in respect to the latter, the functions of the government and assortment of public services are to be re- examined in order to verify and redefine them. Redefining the role of government includes thorough re-thinking of functions that governments would like to have, as well as of those functions that government must have. Functions are various and can be classified into the following groups, according to the World Bank (2004): policy functions, co-ordination, control and monitoring the performance, service delivery, support functions, and regulatory functions. Administrative capacity is of a key importance in this respect.

In this article, we do not concentrate on public policies and the assortment of public services, but on the states' administrative capacity and the ability to have an apparatus that is efficient and capable of adoption when circumstances for their functioning change.

The administrative capacity of public administration in every state is a dynamic category. It varies in time, as the tasks of public administration vary, as do the levels of necessary knowledge and competencies of public employees. It is of a vital importance that the competence model at a state level includes tools to capture competences needed today and those to fit possible future needs. It is important for a state to have a public administration that corresponds to its needs, and that is following principles and requirements for functioning of contemporary public administration including principles of political neutrality. If the balance in the system is ruined, or if it is not optimal according to current situation, then there are consequences on the ability of the public administration to effectively and efficiently support its political management. The state and the entire political management therefore need to have mechanisms that provide monitoring and ensuring administrative capacity of its administration for optimal implementation of its mission, and that is not pending on structure of current government.

The main research question considered in the article is how to provide public administration that is sustainable. We define sustainable public administration as public administration that is continuously capable of supporting its political management (Zurga, 2011a), both in stable and in turbulent times, as will be explained in this article.

Based on the literature review, we can identify the gap between 'what is desired' and 'how to get there' in respect to sustainable public administration. It is our intention in this article to provide and offer a model of sustainable public administration (SPA) that addresses different aspects that were more or less partially considered in scientific literature. In doing this, we take into account several different aspects, such as the maturity of public administrations, the tradition of the state, democracy and public administration, changes of the system, as well as daily modernisation and improvements efforts. The way in which the SPA model is built contributes to the integration of different aspects, and offers states to implement it or act in accordance to it at different starting points.

This article is organized as follows. In the next section, we will first offer a theoretical background; in this respect, we will define the scope of the article and will clarify basic terminology, and then present the literature review. Section 3 is on the methodology used, whereas section 4 will explore and present the efficiency of governments and their political management. In section 5, we present challenges and trends in quality public service delivery; special attention in this respect is being given to distinguishing changes of the system and changes within the system and balancing the performance.

In section 6, the sustainable public administration model (SPA) is being presented and argumented. In section 7, we provide an illustration of the Sustainable public administration model on the case of Slovenia. After the discussion (section 8), I will derive conclusions, will present implications, and will indicate limitations of the research and areas for further investigation.

Theoretical background

Defining the scope

As previously mentioned, the need for sustainable public administration became more important after the economic crisis that occurred in 2008. Different questions were exposed, such as: Were there any early warning signals? If yes, why were they ignored? If not, why they did not exist? Whose responsibility is this? Who should bear the burden of the crises? Why choose to cut public services, as taxpayers are entitled to have quality public services? And finally, one of the legitimate questions was also are governments adequately supported by their apparatus, i.e. public administration?

While countries tried to adopt appropriate measures both in the short- and in the long-term, researchers and theorists concentrated their efforts in finding patterns that would contribute to understanding and overcoming the situation.

In this article, our main focus is sustainable public administration. It is not our intention to talk about reforms and their sustainability. Our focus is placed on how to build and maintain government apparatus to be able to support its political management in managing the state and providing necessary changes--we are addressing a system of public administration.

When speaking of sustainability in connection to public administration (PA), the debate goes into two main directions. First, we speak about inclusion of sustainability into decision making processes within public policies' definition, and holistic planning in society. And secondly, establishing and assuring sustainability in functioning of the government's apparatus that is supporting previously mentioned processes, both in administrative way and with their professional knowledge.

In this article, the focus of our consideration is on the apparatus of governments--the system of public administration itself.

In defining the term sustainable development, we lean on the definition of the World Commission from 1987 (the Brundtland report), i. e. development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" and, in this, incorporates economic, social and environmental concerns. The three pillars represent the bases for social responsibility.

When connecting the term sustainable development with public administration, several authors speak of decision making in different policy areas that should meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. According to Fiorino (2010), sustainability involves three systems: environmental, economic and political/social systems. Fiorino argues that the challenge of governance and of public administration is to sustain each of these systems on its own while maintaining an appropriate balance among them. Khator (1998) talks about public governance for sustainable development. Several authors address different public policy areas in this respect such as land and spatial management and sustainable buildings processes (Enemark, 2001; Fowler & Rauch, 2006), transportation, agriculture and aquaculture (Corbin & Young, 1997), or e- government instruments to--according to Nica (2015)--"accelerate regulatory reform, and the capacity of empowered communities and cooperative governance for sustainable development." For this, holistic planning in the society is of a vital importance (Leuenberger, 2006; Leuenberger & Wakin, 2007). Generally, the authors seek here for sustainability of policy areas--decisions as well the results--to preserve the nature and resources and to be economic, efficient and social responsible at the same time. Public administration is therefore basically seen as a tool for sustainable development (Nica, 2015). In addition to that, according to Ekstrom (2013), sustainability is becoming a vital public value. The authors Gutrie, Ball, & Farneti (2010) expose the need for public and not-for-profit organizations to report on their social, environmental or sustainability impacts. According to Moldavanova (2016), the long term sustainability requires sustainable stewardship today, and organizational sustainability should be viewed not as an outcome but rather as a process and an ethic.

Indeed, sustainable public administration is indispensable connected to social responsibility and the set if its basic principles: accountability, transparency, ethical behaviour, respect for stakeholder interests, respect for the rule of law, respect for international norms of behaviour and respect for human rights (ISO 26000:2010).

Before going more in depth, let us shortly explain the terminology that we use in respect to reforms and other changes that address public administrations.

If we first look to comprehensive dictionaries, the term "reform" may be explained as follows: "Reform consists of changes and improvements to a law, social system, or institution. A reform is an...