Social Context of Public Administration Reform in Slovenia

Public administration reform in Slovenia is regarded as an ongoing process with intertwining political, legal, sociological, economic, information-based, and other dimensions of the efforts and activities involved. The main sociological-political aspects include the guidelines of social and economic development directed by Slovenia's membership in the EU. These comprise particularly the programme for reducing the administrative burden, the use of quality management tools in public administration, the privatisation of service provision, public-private partnerships, streamlining of administrative structures, reduction of the number of employees, and regionalisation. However, the Slovenian public administration must above all operate in accordance with the law, while the principles of customer-orientation, economy, effectiveness, and efficiency come second in importance.