Katarina Staronova

Research Proposal

The Public Policy Process

Cultural Change into Professional Policy Making: The Case of Slovakia

Katarína Staroňová

Background and Objectives of the Study:
The policy-making culture in Slovakia and the whole Central and Eastern Europe has a traditional, predominantly legalistic nature with only little or no access of public / independent experts into policy development. One of the prerequisites of a democratic and well functioning society is effective public administration with a more professional policy making culture. This kind of policy culture is one in which a variety of analytical tools and policy instruments are applied to make and implement relevant, inclusive and high quality public policies, where public is consulted and actively involved into policy formulation, development, monitoring and evaluation, where strategic and project management skills are applied.

For transition countries, professional policy making culture poses two sets of questions in terms of attaining. Firstly, what are the critical factors determining the current process of policy making in transitional countries? What are the factors determining functioning of the professional policy making model in Western countries? Secondly, how can these factors be changed in order to able to transfer the professional model of policy making? How can transitional countries achieve a systematic and democratic way of public policy making? Which institutional arrangements or what necessary criteria need to be fulfilled to serve as an adequate response to these new challenges? The second set of questions seems much more difficult to answer, and it is this set that will concern me in the project.

The research will be based on current analysis of the state of policy making process in Slovakia that is being prepared by Tony Verheijen (UNDP), Miro Beblavy (INEKO) and myself (OSF Slovakia) in summer 2001 as well as the functional review (‘audit’) of the state administration, published in June 2000. This decision was motivated by various assumptions about the state of policy making and policy analysis in Slovakia that rose out of the experience in this area, and which include the following:

•    public policy development in Slovakia occurs within a closed circle of political party and state institution representatives and lacks a complementary process of broad and open public discussion;
•    the level to which (and the way in which) expert consultation with outside interests is used in the policy process is low;
•    the public is rarely and insufficiently informed about anticipated reforms;
•    the quality of policy alternatives development is relatively low and there is a lack of clear criteria for policy selection;
•    the public policy is set by power rather than based on informed policy analysis
•    the connection between policy development work undertaken in the ministries and real needs of the society is weak;
•    the system shows an over-reliance on legal instruments in policy formulation and implementation and lack of policy analysis skills;
•    there is a lack of consistency in the way in which ministries organise their policy functions.

    These perceptions have led to the conclusion that there is an absence of structures, institutions and skills among those whose goal would be to research economic, social and political policies, offering alternative policy solutions and providing objective analysis of political and social processes.

It is well known that in transitional countries these defects in governmental institutions are so severe (because of various reasons and factors) that it is nearly impossible to address complex social problems in a systematic and democratic way. However, besides institutional, structural and other factors also the political culture plays an important role for developing contributive/hostile environment in public policy process. Schein defines culture as the ways members of an organization learned to deal with problems, which proved to be adequate in a certain period and which are considered worth to be transferred to other organizations. But how should this cultural change in policy making process happen? Thus, the aim is to analyze all these factors and focus on the transformation process from traditional to professional model of policy making.

    Thus, the main objective of this research report is to build upon the previous research and find answers to the following questions: To what extent do existing organizational and institutional arrangements already fulfil the role of professional public policy making? What cultural changes are necessary to achieve professional public policy making? How can a certain model be transferred? What are the risks involved? What does the success of cultural change depend on? Only once answers to these questions have been articulated will it be possible to determine a further course of action (i.e. drawing possible recommendation on the ways of introducing professional public policy making).

There are three project objectives:
•    a summary report on Western models of public policy processes, the current status of policy making in Slovakia and implications of the change that has to be undertaken in order to achieve professional policy making culture
•    an evaluation of risks and opportunities involved in the transfer to the professional model of policy making
•    an attempt to offer policy recommendations for change

Another objective of the project is to use this research paper on program strategies for the Soros foundation network in the field of public administration in the accession countries. These countries are committed to developing new strategies that support the process of European Union enlargement. A precondition for the accession are transparent and well functioning institutions, including governmental units with adequate national administrative capacities both to implement EU policies and to be able of public policy making. Also, these units must learn to operate in a multilevel system of governance. Therefore, the opportunity to influence the accession process is in helping the government to create/transform policy units at the ministries and other institutions according to the recommendation and analysis made in the paper. It is especially important to help governments in this matter as the planning and implementation of administrative capacity development measures are solely the responsibility of each individual country.
Plan for Fulfilment
The project is a logical continuation of the currently conducted research on the status of public policy making in Slovakia as it aspires to outline the possible ways of achieving cultural change in public policy process.

Project will develop in several stages:
1)    At the first stage existing literature on cultural change, existing Western models of policy making and current status of the public policy process in Slovakia will be reviewed to develop a methodological framework and to postulate main hypotheses. At the same time theoretical and preparatory work for empirical research will be conducted.
2)    At the second stage analysis of individual factors will be conducted that determine the difference between the current and desired policy making model. Their critical evaluation will follow with identification of main risks and opportunities involved in a model transfer. Publications of international institutions, published country studies, as well as original research will be used. Relevant institutions will be approached to obtain more detailed information and to clarify controversial issues. To achieve this, semi-structured interviews will be made.
3)    At the third stage a comprehensive empirical analysis of Government institutional and administrative structures will be conducted. They will be estimated and evaluated for their potential in transformation into professional organizational units capable of policy making. Real systems will be tested for their correspondence to theoretical premises. Recent changes, current and future directions and policy intentions will be evaluated.
4)    At the fourth stage of the project, I will bring the results to academic discussion and scrutiny. Through discussion the results will be reshaped and possible weaknesses will be investigated and changed. Findings of stages 1-3 will be summarised and policy conclusions will be drawn. Research paper will be prepared.

Applicability of the Outcomes
The project targets the following specific areas:
•    Policy-making: By analysing the relationship between current status of policy making culture and desired model of public policy process the project will highlight the risks and opportunities for transforming and realizing the cultural change. Project output will aim at serving as a policy design of how the policy making process could be improved.
•    Institutional arrangements. The project will recommend policies for strengthening administrative and human capacities of existing units to be able not only to create policy design, but also evolve policy making processes. As a result the units will expand the range of policy alternatives being considered as they will be able to create common ground for the policy participants. Also, these governmental units will be able to develop strategic ways of coping with complexity of social problems and at the same time introduce responsiveness towards public. The ultimate goal is the support for the policy making culture on institutionalized level with more reasoned and more democratic policy making.
•    The pattern of policy making process at governmental level is repeated in the region, particularly in Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland). Therefore, by understanding issues involved in the change of the policy making process in the governmental institutions, it is possible to develop strategy for affecting policy capacity in the region.