Theory and politics of the reform of public administration (Alternative approaches to the democratisation and innovation)

Article presents alternative theoretical approaches to the reforms of the s ystem of public administration, which could be eventually employed in the t ransformational processes of the post-communist societies. The present consensus regarding the reforms of public administration in the Central and Eastem European countries is more concerned with the piecemeal aspects of system's structure as with the issues concerning the public adm inistration systems as a whole. One of the still persisting problems, which the transforming societies face, is a lack of the political scientific ana lysis of their public administration systems, The first part of the article focuses on the politics of democratisation of power relations between central and local governments, especially on the d ebates between liberalism and communitarism, the state and the municipaliti es, and the issues related to the decentralisation of power within the mode ls of local government and the theories of new regionalism. The second part discusses the models and politics of motivation of the publ ic sector management, elaborating on the concepts of public choice theory, neo-taylorism, the dual-state theory, the theory of social relations and th e theory of new public management.