The Impact of Quality of Bureaucracy on Governance Performance: A Comparative Study in Balkan States

The interaction between the degree of administrative rationalisation, ratios of economic growth and public sector performance represents a research field yet insufficient approached, at least for the Balkan states. The administrative rationalisation refers to the Weberian approaches of public administration and civil service, developing presently on the theories and principles of rational choice. The link with the economic growth and governance performance has been demonstrated in several studies developed by recognised authors or prestigious international institutions or organisations: World Bank, OECD etc. In this context, the paper aims to assess the economic impact of the quality of bureaucracy in national administrations, whose structures, through administrative convergence and dynamics become more or less similar to Weberian administrative structures. At the end of the 20th century, the field literature has developed comprehensive studies on that topic, analysing the situation in over 35 states worldwide. The Balkan states were not comprised in the mentioned studies. Further studies have extended the analyses on the direct and indirect correlations between quality of bureaucracy and governance performance. The studies concerning the European Union Member States, African states etc. are relevant. Evans and Rauch (1999) have demonstrated that there is a strong relationship between a national state's bureaucratic capacities (what they refer to as its `weberianess') and its record on economic growth. The conclusions are global, with regional character, emphasizing the directions of action in view to promote the administrative rationalisation. It is worth to mention the studies on the analysis of administrative meritocracy, concept deriving also from Weberian approach of public administration correlated with specialised studies from sciences of education and psychology. All the above-mentioned studies will impose a thorough interdisciplinary character to the paper. The paper presents the outcomes of a comparative theoretical and empirical research for the Balkan states, in view to determine the correlation between the quality of bureaucracy, economic growth and governance performance. The investigation method consists in the use of the sociological tool "analysis of economic bureaucracy", whose content is based on Weber's principles of administrative rationalisation, adapted to the research objectives of the paper and grouped in competitive salaries, internal promotion and career stability, and meritocratic recruitment. The investigation method represents an extension of "Weberian scale", tool already inserted in the socio-administrative culture and it provides information for the analysis proposed. The sociological investigation was developed in four Balkan states: Romania, Greece, Bulgaria and Croatia on a sample of 125 stakeholders, determined on basis of rigorous representativeness criteria at central government level for each above-mentioned state. The research methods use analyses based on statistic correlation and regression as well as socio-political qualitative analyses, deepening the research directions from the field literature and studies. The authors are beneficiaries of the project "Restructuring doctoral research in the fields of political sciences, public administration, sociology and communication", co-funded by the European Union through the European Social Fund, Sectorial Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013