Politics and Bureaucracy in the European State A Comparative Study into the Changing Relations Between Political and Bureaucratic Institutions

Session 1: Governance in the European Unio

Functional Politicization in the Dutch Senior Civil Service:Evidence from Longitudinal Surveys and Qualitative Research (2007-2019)

Although substantial advances have been made in our comprehension of functional politicization - political capacities and activities being taken on by bureaucrats in their administrative duties - questions surrounding its causal mechanisms remain. To shed light on these questions, we here explore increasing political polarization (and fragmentation) in Dutch politics and functional politicization over the period 2007-2019 to see how the two are related. To do so, we adopt a cross-time approach that observes which skills - political-strategic insight, substantive expertise (Fachwissen), or procedural knowledge (Dienstwissen) - senior civil servants perceive to be the most relevant to successfully and correctly exercise their profession in a period of increasing polarization in the Dutch political landscape. Drawing from surveys conducted with senior civil servants in 2007, 2013 and 2019, combined with semi-structured interviews conducted in 2019, the data depicts the prevalence of political astuteness in the profession and highlights the factors for its causes: institutional, organizational, and interpersonal dynamics. This indicates an (in)direct link between political polarization and functional politicization of the administrative apparatus that serves as a basis for further cross-time and cross-country investigation

Haagse pionnen op het Brusselse schaakbord?

Samenvatting In dit artikel komt het vraagstuk van de ambtelijke autonomie van geëuropeaniseerde rijksambtenaren aan de orde. Als casus wordt de politieke en ambtelijke aansturing van Nederlandse rijksambtenaren die gedetacheerd worden bij de Europese Commissie (END-ers) onderzocht. Het empirisch materiaal bestaat uit survey-data (N = 90) en interviewdata (N = 28), verkregen van zowel huidige als voormalige END-ers. Op grond van dit materiaal wordt betoogd dat hoewel van formele aansturing vanuit de lidstaat geen sprake kan zijn, de END-ers in de praktijk een duidelijke brugfunctie vervullen tussen beide bestuurslagen. Dit kan gebeuren door middel van zowel frontloaden (bewust, na instructies van de nationale overheid, of onbewust, als gevolg van het nationaal-culturele perspectief) als signaleren (strategisch informatie en standpunten doorseinen van de ene bestuurslaag naar de andere). Hoewel de contacten van de END-er met de Commissie vaak redelijk overeind blijven na terugkomst, neemt de intensiteit van de contacten met andere typen actoren in het beleidsnetwerk meestal snel af

Bridge-builders or Bridgeheads in Brussels? The World of Seconded National Experts

Introduction:The foregoing chapters of this book have demonstrated the extent to which national civil servants are involved in EU-related activities, and the dynamics of national administrative activities in the context of the EU. This chapter shifts the focus from national civil servants working on the European Union to national civil servants working for the European Union. This is a class of national civil servants for whom finding a balance between national and European interests in their work is a permanent, although sometimes implicit feature of their daily professional activities. The duality of national and European roles is perhaps the most exacerbated for the seconded national experts (SNEs), i.e. national civil servants who are temporarily working for EU institutions, in particular those seconded to the European Commission.2 On the one hand, Commission SNEs have to be loyal to the Commission and represent European interests in this supranational organ of the EU. On the other hand, their employer is still the member-state government, and they are expected to return to their home organization after their secondment term ends. The SNEs are thus practically torn between two employers: their daily employer under whose supervision they work (the Commission) and the national employer who sent them on the secondment and continues to pay their salaries (the member-state)

Comparative Studies in Public Administration:Intellectual Challenges and Alternative Perspectives

In the current age of globalization, there is a greater need for comparative studies in public administration to explore cross-national variations in adopting new global models. Many of the major challenges impeding the intellectual promises of earlier waves of comparative administration continue to affect the contemporary state of the field. As a part of the PAR Symposium on Comparative Public Administration, this short article explores the ideational, epistemological, structural, and institutional challenges to comparative administration and briefly suggests some remedial alternatives