(Un)principled principals, (un)principled agents: The differential effects of managerial civil service reforms on corruption in developing and OECD countries

Do management practices have similar anticorruption effects in OECD and developing countries? Despite prominent cautions against “New Zealand” reforms which enhance managerial discretion in developing countries, scholars have not assessed this question statistically. Our article addresses this gap through a conjoint experiment with 6,500 public servants in three developing countries and one OECD country. Our experiment assesses Weberian relative to managerial approaches to recruitment, job stability, and pay. We argue that in developing countries with institutionalized corruption and weak rule of law—yet not OECD countries without such features—“unprincipled” principals use managerial discretion over hiring, firing, and pay to favor “unprincipled” bureaucratic agents who engage in corruption. Our results support this argument: managerial practices are associated with greater bureaucratic corruption in our surveyed developing countries, yet have little effect in our OECD country. Alleged “best practices” in public management in OECD countries may thus be “worst practices” in developing countries

Exit, Voice, and Sabotage: Public Service Motivation and Guerrilla Bureaucracy in Times of Unprincipled Political Principals

Democratic backsliding has multiplied “unprincipled” political principals: governments with weak commitment to the public interest. Why do some bureaucrats engage in voice and guerrilla sabotage to thwart policies against the public interest under “unprincipled principals,” yet others do not? Despite its centrality in contemporary governance, this conundrum has not seen quantitative research. We address this gap with survey evidence from 1,700 Brazilian public servants during the Temer Presidency, widely perceived to lack democratic legitimacy and integrity. We focus on one key explanator: public service motivation (PSM). We argue that bureaucrats with greater PSM are more likely to engage in voice and sabotage of “unprincipled policies,” and exit to avoid implementing “unprincipled policies.” Structural equation models support these hypotheses. Public service-motivated bureaucracies are thus short-run stalwarts against “unprincipled” political principals. Over time, they look to depart, however, leaving “unprincipled” principals a freer hand to pursue policies against the public interest

Solidifying system of democracy in the Central and Eastern European new EU members

The paper examines the requirements of an effective and legitimized democratic political system in the process of transition. The analysis and the conclusions are based on the Hungarian experience, which can carefully be applied to all Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Special focus is given to the relationship of legal certainty and the efficiency of the democratic system, to the tension between legalism and managerialism and to the characteristics of civil society organizations. In the conclusion special features of the transitional countries are pointed out

Distorções de incentivo ao desempenho e redução de motivação no serviço público federal no Brasil = Distortions of incentive to performance and reduction of motivation in the federal public service in Brazil

No atual sistema de cargos e carreiras do Poder Executivo federal brasileiro, servidores públicos que não ocupam cargos de livre provimento têm duas maneiras preponderantes para alcançar um patamar salarial mais elevado: antiguidade ou aprovação em concurso público para uma carreira mais bem remunerada. Neste artigo, sugerimos que essas maneiras de ascensão afetam negativamente a motivação para o serviço público. Primeiro, elas transferem os incentivos dos servidores públicos em início de carreira de desempenho no trabalho para preparação para concursos de carreiras com salários mais elevados, e simultaneamente os privam de outras formas de ascensão quando nos estágios intermediários e avançados de suas carreiras. Segundo, elas geram desigualdade salarial entre carreiras, desmotivando servidores públicos com responsabilidades semelhantes em carreiras com remunerações inferiores. Dados de nosso survey com 2.800 servidores públicos de 14 instituições do Governo Federal oferecem indícios acerca da importância de reduzir essas distorções de incentivo. // In the current structure of careers in the Brazilian Federal Government, public officials who do not hold a DAS position have two predominant ways of reaching a higher salary level: years of service and passing a written examination for a higher paid public service career. We argue in this paper that these pathways affect in a negative way public service motivation. First, they shift incentives of early career public officials from job performance towards preparing for higher paid career exams, while depriving officials in middle and later stages of their careers of any advancement opportunities. They also cause salary inequity between careers, demotivating officials with similar responsibilities in lower paid careers. Through statistical analyses of data from an original survey with 2,800 public servants in 14 federal government institutions in Brazil, our findings point to the importance of reducing incentive distortions in Brazil’s public service

Responding to COVID‐19 through Surveys of Public Servants

Responding to COVID‐19 presents unprecedented challenges for public sector practitioners. Addressing those challenges requires knowledge about the problems that public sector workers face. This Viewpoint essay argues that timely, up‐to‐date surveys of public sector workers are essential tools for identifying problems, resolving bottlenecks, and enabling public sector workers to operate effectively during and in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic. This essay presents the COVID‐19 Survey of Public Servants, which is currently being rolled out in several countries by the Global Survey of Public Servants Consortium to assist governments in strategically compiling evidence to operate effectively during the COVID‐19 pandemic