<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The common feature of CEE systems is that they change drastically. Political systems change, e.g. from dictatorships to democracies, and their elites are removed. Democratic checks and balances are established. State structures are reshuffled, e.g. toward more decentralisation. The economic system changes its nature, e.g. from state monopolies to market systems with private firms. Societal and social systems with NGOs, not-for-profit organisations and citizen action groups are established and are designed for people to participate actively in the public debate and to become stakeholders of their society and their communities (Peters 1996).To achieve planned changes, CEE countries had to choose their strategies. In focusing on the administration and the management of public systems, five scopes of reform are possible, from very narrow and limited to a very widespread and broad span of reform (Pollitt and Bouckaert 2004). Choosing one of these models has tremendous practical implications for the content of a reform programme, for the choice of the reform projects, for the sequence and timing of the reform portfolio. It also requires different tactical choices to be made. One of the issues is how many degrees of freedom there are to reform the public sector.Just as in many other countries, mixed strategies have been chosen for public- sector reform in CEE countries, and these choices have changed over time. However, it seems that the span of reform has rather been broad than narrow. It also seems that tactics could have been more visible than strategy because of electoral cycles.This brings us to the question of the trajectories to move ahead. Our article, heavily based in the joint NISPAcee research project4 tries to respond to some selected dimensions of the question of what the common and different trajectories and selected outcomes of public administration / management reforms are in the CEE region.</abstract>

Public Management Institute, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

Institute of International Relations and Political Science, University of Vilnius, Lithunia

Faculty of Economics, Matej Bel University, Slovakia

Public Administration and Management Reforms in CEE: Main Trajectories and Results

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Despite numerous challenges, since its independence, Uzbekistan, with the exception of the May 2005 Andijan events, has enjoyed extraordinary political stability and not recorded any considerable cases of interethnic or interfaith conflict, regime change or civil war, whereas neighboring Kyrgyzstan, labeled an "island of democracy" by the Western world, has experienced numerous conflicts and chaos, ranging from "color revolutions" to ethnic conflict. However, for understanding Uzbekistan's ability to cope with internal and external challenges, little recourse is made to the post-independence discourse on public administration known as "mahalla reforms". In spite of the significant existing body of literature on the mahalla, there has been little systematic scholarly investigation of the role of mahalla in maintaining political stability and security in Uzbekistan. Previous studies did not provide an account of how the law, social norms and welfare come to interplay in the mahalla system and how this influences the public administration developments in Uzbekistan. This paper begins to redress this lacuna by analyzing public-administration reforms in post-independence Uzbekistan, namely mahalla reforms, with an effort to show how political and social stability is established through mahalla, and to what extent those reforms have affected the position of individuals vis-à-vis the public-administration system. In undertaking this task, the paper employs three theoretical concepts: the theory of norms, the welfare-pentagon model and the theory of social control. In this paper, I argue that public-administration reforms since 1991 have transformed mahalla into a comprehensive system of social control; and therefore, mahalla can be places of democratic involvement or sites of authoritarianism in Uzbekistan.</abstract>

Law, Social Norms and Welfare as Means of Public Administration: Case Study of Mahalla Institutions in Uzbekistan

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NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy

Online ISSN: 1338-4309  The Journal is predominantly devoted to public administration, public policy and public governance issues in Central and Eastern Europe, but high-level submissions from any other part of the world are also considered, especially if they focus on the issues relevant to the NISPAcee region. The goal is to publish top quality papers based on empirical research (of qualitative, quantitative or mixed character), theoretical articles and literature reviews, developing general public administration, public policy and public governance theory, or their specific dimensions. It is devoted to all interested parties – academicians, politicians and public officials – to help develop public administration and public policy theory and practice in our region. A high-quality standard review process is the principal quality assurance tool of the Journal and its main intention is to become one of the top periodicals in the area.   Why subscribe and read  A high quality standard review process is the principal quality assurance tool of our Journal and our intention is to become one of the top periodicals in the area.  Why submit  Fast, fair and constructive peer review; promotion of each published article.   Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 

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Editors: Juraj Nemec, Geert Bouckaert, Wolfgang Drechsler and Gyorgy Jenei

Volume 4 (2011): Issue 1 (June 2011)

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy

Volume 4 (2011): Issue 1 (June 2011)

Editors: Juraj Nemec, Geert Bouckaert, Wolfgang Drechsler and Gyorgy Jenei

Public Administration and Management Reforms in CEE: Main Trajectories and Results

Law, Social Norms and Welfare as Means of Public Administration: Case Study of Mahalla Institutions in Uzbekistan

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