Potential for comparative public opinion research in public administration

The public administration and public services have always taken a marginal place in the political scientists’ behavioural research. Public administration students on the other hand tend to focus on political and administrative elites and institutions, and largely ignored citizens in comparative research. In this article we make a plea for international comparative research on citizens’ attitudes towards the public administration from an interdisciplinary perspective. Available international survey material is discussed, and main trends in empirical practice and theoretical approaches are outlined, especially those with a potential impact on public sector reform

Is the European Commission a 'Hothouse' for Supranationalism? Exploring Actor-Level Supranationalism

The article explores actor-level supranationalism among seconded national experts (SNEs) in the European Commission. The transformative clout of the European Commission is assessed by the extent to which SNEs adopt a "supranational" role perception. The survey and interview data presented demonstrates that SNEs evoke multiple roles, notably departmental, epistemic and supranational roles. OLS regression analyses reveal that actor-level supranationalism among SNEs reflect (i) processes of re-socialization inside the Commission, (ii) the organizational composition of the Commission and (iii) organizational "in"compatibilities between the Commission and domestic government institutions. Copyright (c) 2007 The Author(s); Journal compilation (c) 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.