Administrative Reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Comparative Perspective: A Distinctive Case of Context in Motion

Abstract

This paper illustrates and critically analyses administrative and public management
reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) over the period from 1995 to
2020, thereby filling a gap in the literature on post-socialist transition in Europe,
which has largely missed this important case. Reforms in both the field of
personnel management and the field of financial management are considered.
Specifically, the features of the civil service system and management, the use
of HRM databases, recruitment, training and development, and remuneration
are analysed in relation to personnel management, and budgeting, accounting,
and auditing processes are examined in relation to financial management. The
BiH case of reform is investigated through the analytical-theoretical lens of the
“Pollitt and Bouckaert model”, a prominent and widely employed framework
developed by the late C. Pollitt and by G. Bouckaert. The P&B model provides
a lens through which to investigate the BiH case and make it amenable to
comparative analyses and discussion. At the same time, the uneasy way with
which the BiH case can be accommodated into the P&B model enables us to
revisit certain features of this very model, thus contributing also theoretically to
knowledge generation in the field.