Croatian and Comparative Public Administration

Foreword

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The Role of State-owned Enterprises in the European Union

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We can witness the appearance of state involvement to different extents and with
different goals in each of the economic services of general interest. This new type
of intervention is aimed at controlling and limiting traditional market competi
tion. Of course, this can not only be traced back to the decision-making powers
of the Member States, but it is also the result of the organization and function
of EU institutions and their decision-making mechanisms. At the same time, the
winners of this are the individual Member States, which creates a basis for the
strengthening of national sovereignty in the integration. Member States’ room
for manoeuvre has clearly increased in the field of public services, at least in the
scope of exceptions to the general competition rules. One of the unique forms of
realization of this situation is the increase in the state ownership share and its
regulation. A particularly important question from a public financial point of
view is how state subsidies received for the provision of public services affect the
cross-financing of profitable services. At the same time, this can clearly illustrate
the differences arising from market characteristics and the success of liberaliza
tion in certain areas. The question of how the role of state-owned enterprises can
be determined within the framework of the market economy emerges prominently
in the examined EU policies. At the same time, in recent decades, the spectrum
of services where state-owned companies appear has been expanding, which
sheds new light on their purpose within the framework of a competitive economy.
From the point of view of European integration and internal market competition
regulation, it is particularly justified to reevaluate this issue and explore the
motivations inherent in the regulation.

Administrative Judicial Approach to Legal Building Information Modelling in Italy: Application of an Interdisciplinary Approach

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This paper considers the administrative judicial approach to Building Informa
tion Modelling (BIM) in Italy. BIM was chosen as an innovative construction
method. In addition, the Italian legal system has been chosen as a model because
while the EU law only encourages countries to implement building information
electronic modelling tools, the Italian legislator has established their mandatory
application. Although Italy is not part of the common law system, recent reforms
have underlined the importance of the role of jurisprudence. Thus, the paper
includes a case law study. This contribution is innovative not only because it
applies a judicial approach to legal BIM, while other scientific papers focus on
its physical or legal implementation, but more importantly, it proposes some of
the reasons why judges make the mistake of not classifying BIM as a method.
Moreover, this contribution informs readers of the public procurements dealing
with BIM in Italy. So, in other words, it shows that in Italy, administrative
judges have dealt with several public procurements including BIM. The review of
the Italian administrative judicial approach to legal BIM has shown two main
results. First, although BIM is a new method, the main principles of administra
tive law still apply. Second, although BIM is a method, several legal decisions
have confused it with other concepts, such as modality, software, system, project,
methodology, model, or technology. The absence of correct classification by Ital
ian administrative judges might be due to the mistake in the invitation for bids,
or due to the fact that the Italian Parliament also needed clarification on the
question of method versus methodology.

Increasing Governance Innovation Capacity of Local Governments Through Knowledge-Seeking: The Moderating Effect of Transformational Leadership

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This study explores the relationship between governance innovation capacity,
knowledge-seeking, and transformational leadership in local governments. De
spite the importance of innovation in public governance, many local govern
ments face challenges due to limited innovation capacity. Using a multisite case
study approach, this study analyzes two local governments in Indonesia, involv
ing eight agency leaders. The research suggests that transformational leadership
can moderate the impact of knowledge-seeking on innovation, fostering prac
tices that enhance governance innovation. Findings underscore the crucial role
of leadership in promoting knowledge-seeking and fostering innovation within
local governments, particularly highlighting the need for leadership continu
ity and alignment across all levels of management. However, the innovation
capacity observed is limited to individual level, suggesting the need for further
research into organizational and network dimensions to support a more holistic
approach to innovation. The findings also highlight the need for local govern
ments to invest in transformational leadership as a catalyst for innovation. To
achieve this, leadership should be promoted not only at the political level but
also within agencies, especially among mid-level and operational leaders. Local
governments should prioritize leadership development programmes that foster
transformational qualities and create mechanisms for the creation, acquisition,
and application of knowledge across departments and with external partners.
For future research, it is recommended that a framework be developed to explore
the influence of transformational leadership, while also considering the role of
transactional leadership – which remains dominant in some sites – as well as
the organizational structure and inter-agency collaboration in strengthening
governance innovation capacity. A qualitative approach could provide deeper
insights into how differences in leadership styles impact governance innovation
and help capture dynamics not fully addressed by quantitative methods.

“Under Pressure”: Permanent Transformation of the Administration of Regional Development in Hungary

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This paper could be interpreted as a problem map, by which the challenges
and solutions of the Hungarian regional development administration could be
identified. The paper focuses on the institutional, organisational system, and the
changes of the regulatory environment of these bodies from the time of the pre-ac
cession until 2024 are analysed. This transformation of the administration has
a direct impact on sensitive political issues, and this structure was even an object
of power games in the Hungarian politics. Therefore, the main factors of the
Hungarian administration have been, first of all, the European environment, es
pecially the regulations related to the EU budgetary cycles. Secondly, as it could
be seen, the changes of the government and even the power struggles within the
governments have been a significant factor of the changes of the administrative
organisation of the Hungarian regional development system. In the Hungarian
regional development administration, a fragmentation at the government level
can be seen, where under certain governments different aspects of the regional
development were shared sometimes by three-four major actors. This fragmenta
tion continued until 2022, when a comprehensive integration was undertaken by
merging all issues linked to regional development into one ministry.

Bibliometrics Study of Journals in Public Administration

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The significant advance of public administration as a stand-alone discipline
with interdisciplinary approach has led to a proliferation of journals catering
to the field of public administration. The remarkable growth of the field elicits
the need for bibliometric analysis in order to gauge the impact and influence of
the journals. There are several popular metrics for measuring the impact of the
journals, the impact factor and H-index being the most popular. This paper
offers a bibliometric analysis incorporating a wide range of citation metrics to
provide readers with a comprehensive view of the top 100 journals, along with
an in-depth analysis of the top three journals among them. Therefore, the goal
of the paper is to help researchers make informed decisions when opting for a
journal to publish their work. First, the paper provides a brief overview of public
administration as a field of study, its evolution and recent advancements. The
paper then moves to explain citation metrics and the key aspects pertaining to it.
The next part which also forms the core of the paper offers a tabular presentation
and analysis of the top 100 journals with a range of citation metrics such as
impact factor, H-index, SJR, etc. and key social and thematic aspects of the top
three among them. The analysis shows that Administrative Science Quarterly is
the still the topmost journal with an impact factor of 10.1 and demonstrates the
dominance of co-authorship over single authorship across all the journals in the
field.

Indicators for Measuring the Efficiency of Local Public Services

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The paper provides a literature review on the output variables and indicators
used to assess the efficiency of local public services (ELPS), specifically focusing
on the quantity and quality of these services from 1990 to 2024. The output var
iable refers to a specific local public service, classified by expenditure functions
(e.g., healthcare), while the output indicator measures how the service is quanti
fied (e.g., the number of health centers or hospital beds). The review reveals that
measuring a particular local public service is complex, with various output indi
cators being used. There are no standardized indicators for assessing a specific
service, and the selection of indicators depends on the characteristics of a service
and available data. The heterogeneity in measurement approaches often results
in apparent contradictions and inconsistencies in research findings, particularly
in studies exploring the determinants of ELPS. Consequently, future research,
especially comparative studies, should carefully consider the choice of output
indicators to ensure the credibility of efficiency analyses. Regarding Croatia, it
is noted that data availability makes it easier to conduct analyses at the county
level rather than for municipalities or cities. A thorough analysis of available
data at the appropriate level is essential. However, readily accessible and up-to
date local data, such as population, area, and financial reports from local units
or companies, can be useful for determining output indicators. Previous research
in Croatia has focused on the overall efficiency of public service provision at the
county, city, and municipal levels, rather than on specific services. However, it
would be feasible to assess the efficiency of education services for counties and
cities, as comprehensive and up-to-date annual data is available through the
Školski e-Rudnik system. To measure ELPS effectively, it is recommended to
combine multiple output indicators, particularly those that assess both the sup
ply and quality of the public services provided.