Croatian and Comparative Public Administration

Foreword

Vedran Đulabić — 2024-05-01

“No Countries for Municipalities?” – Old and New Faces of Centralisation in the Time of Crisis

István Hoffman — 2024-04-30

It is a “cliché” in the administrative sciences that centralisation tendencies are
accelerated by crises. Public service provision and administration have been
transformed by the digitalisation and application of ICT. My article will focus
mainly on the impact of these changes on regulatory issues. New approaches
have evolved: centralisation and concentration have new “faces”, and a soft divergence
between different European countries can also be observed. “Soft power”
issues, like regulation and standards of public service provision and central
financial tools have become new elements of centralisation reforms, and the concentration
of local public services and local administration has become a new
issue, especially in Northern and Western Europe. Similarly, the “platformisation”
of local services can be interpreted as a new form of centralisation: the data
required for these activities are centrally managed, and the access to these data
is defined by the central governments. A “Northern” and “Southern/Eastern”
approach to centralisation can be distinguished. The Northern pattern is based
on new forms of centralisation, and the “traditional” forms of centralisation have
a more significant influence on the Southern approach (however, new forms of
centralisation can be observed as well).

Tax Autonomy of Local Government: A Comparison of Croatia and OECD Countries

Robert Matić — 2024-05-01

The paper measures the total (two-tier) local tax autonomy (cities/municipalities
and counties combined) in Croatia applying the OECD methodology in terms
of the definition and scope of taxes and their classification according to taxing
power and autonomy. First, it follows the methodology of previous studies for
Croatia, which considered only nominal taxes. This results in a relatively small
share of autonomous taxes in local tax revenues. The change from a formal
recording of taxes to an effective one based on the OECD definition of taxes
leads to more than a doubling of local autonomous taxes. However, compared to
other OECD unitary countries (countries with only the local level), Croatia still
lags significantly behind the OECD average and also behind the average of EU
member countries that are also OECD member countries. The weighting of different
categories, despite the risk of arbitrariness, and the resulting tax autonomy
index show an additional improvement of the Croatian situation. Further calculation
of the tax autonomy index and, in particular, the composite indicator
of tax autonomy (share of autonomous local taxes in total general government
taxes), as well as the composite tax autonomy index (local tax autonomy index
divided by total general government taxes), lead to a further improvement of the
Croatian position. Although the country is still below the OECD average, it has
improved to an almost median position. The indicators suggest that the taxing
powers of local governments need to be further strengthened.

A Review of Factors Influencing Strategy Implementation in the Public Sector: A Conceptual Framework

Afiqah Amin — 2024-05-01

The aim of this paper is to propose a framework of strategy implementation that
could be more relevant to the circumstances prevailing in the public sector. This
paper used systematic review method to assess previous literature on factors influencing
strategy implementation that have more relevance on public sector and
then proceeds to propose a framework of strategy implementation for public sector.
Based on the available evidence, a framework of internal and external factors of
strategy implementation is developed. The framework includes a recommendation
from the gaps addressed beforehand: 1. To link strategy implementation based
on public sector concept with internal factors such as centralised, formalised and
complexity structure, transformational and transactional leadership, formal and
informal communication, and appropriate organisational culture, and 2. To consider
the impact of external factors such as political and governmental regulation,
resources from the budgeting system and technology infrastructure on the internal
factors as moderators. An implication of this is the possibility that both managers
and policy implementers in the public sector understand factors that are relevant
when implementing a strategy in the public sector. There have been studies on the
application of contingency approach in the area of strategy formulation in the
public sector, but not in the strategy implementation. Thus, this study is considered
as one of the few studies that identify factors that influence strategy implementation
based on the requirement of public sector.

Nuđenje usluga kao novi koncept pružanja usluga korisnicima inteligentne javne uprave

Mladen Radivojevic — 2024-05-01

The research we conducted shows that users of public administration services are
dissatisfied with the level of application of new technologies and advocate the
use of service offerings and greater application of new technological solutions. It
is evident from the research that the elderly do not want the service offered, and
that a higher percentage of women than the male population want to receive the
service via mobile phone. In the paper, we proposed only a small part of the procedures
that must be implemented in the public administration and that both the
implementers and the users of the concept of offering services should adhere to.
We proposed the use of a single data warehouse and an appropriate infrastructure
that could ensure intelligent public administration. We believe that the next
period should be marked by a greater connection between all administrations,
administrative organizations and local self-government units (service providers),
so that the proposed concept could be fully implemented.

Human Rights and Equality Institutions in Europe: Increasing Efficacy by Finding a Balance between Centralisation and Fragmentation

Antonija Petričušić — 2024-05-01

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) are state bodies mandated to protect
and promote human rights. Their mission is to identify and tackle systemic
problems while raising fundamental rights awareness in countries in which they
have been established. Human rights institutions at the national level include
Ombudsman (some specialising in particularly vulnerable groups), Equality
Bodies, National Preventive Mechanisms, National Monitoring Mechanisms,
Data Protection Agencies, and more. In this article, we analyse the strengths
and weaknesses of both centralised and fragmented systems of human rights
institutions. Using examples from several European countries, we particularly
examine how the fragmentation of institutions affects their resilience to pressures
which can adversely impact the promotion and protection of human rights and
equality at the national level. We argue that opting for a certain NHRIs’ system
might exert significant influence on the independence and effectiveness of
individual institutions, as well as on the overall comprehensiveness of a nation’s
human rights infrastructure.

Korupcija i povjerenje u institucije u Hrvatskoj prije i poslije ulaska u EU

Jelena Budak — 2024-05-01

The paper explores Croatian citizens' attitudes, perceptions of corruption, and trust in institutions before and after Croatia's accession to the EU. The empirical research was conducted by comparing the survey conducted in 2022 with the same questions from the 1999, 2008, 2010, and/or 2017 surveys. The recent survey was replicated after sufficiently long periods to observe changes in public attitudes, perceptions, and behavior in Croatia today and compare them to those before EU membership. The main research question is whether corruption has decreased or increased since Croatia joined the EU. The results point to the EU's weak influence in reducing corruption and strengthening trust in institutions for the newest EU member state that was supposed to meet the rigorous conditions of admission in this segment.

Indeed, in Croatia, the perception of corruption increased after joining the EU. The outcomes worsened in all observed dimensions: corruption became the most important problem in Croatia, corruptive behavior of public employees is considered frequent, and the perceived corrupt practices in public institutions as increasing.

The most corrupt institutions are the local and central government, political parties, and the judiciary. High perceptions of corruption prevalence follow the public's opinion that reporting corruption is futile and risky. The opinion that corruption is sometimes the only means of achieving the goal is gaining importance, primarily because citizens lack trust in (corrupt) institutions. Citizens have little or no trust in the highest institutions of executive, legislative, and judicial power: the Government, the Parliament, and the judiciary.

This empirical survey of citizens' attitudes and perceptions of corruption before and after Croatia's accession to the EU provides insight into the direction and intensity of changes, thus contributing to the scarce literature on the relationship between corruption in member states and the institutional framework of the EU.

Reviewers of the Papers Submitted to the Croatian and Comparative Public Administration in 2022

Mihovil Škarica — 2024-05-01

Reviewers of the Papers Submitted to the Croatian and Comparative Public Administration in 2023

Mihovil Škarica — 2024-05-01