From islands of excellence to state professionalisation: European integration and the management of bureaucratic elites in post-communist Europe

这项研究旨在调查欧盟一体化对后共产主义欧洲官僚精英职业化的影响。建立一支专业化和非政治化的公务员队伍是成功实现从一党到多党民主和从国家计划到市场经济的“双重转型”(Bartlett 1997)的先决条件。这也是中东欧(CEE)新成员国加入欧盟的一个条件(Dimitrova，2010年)。尽管这一进程意义重大，但该地区的非政治化进程充其量也只是部分成功。一方面，已经表明官僚机构，特别是高层的政治化现象持续存在(Meyer-Sahling/Veen 2012)。另一方面，有人认为，加入欧盟造成了技能超群、无党派的人员集群或“卓越之岛”(Goetz 2001)，有两种可能的后果--持续集中在受欧盟影响最大的机构，导致国家分裂，或溢出到整个系统，从而提高整个国家行政机构的专业化。然而，这种“卓越的孤岛”或“效率的口袋”的存在(Bersch等人。(2017)在中欧和东欧地区尚未进行理论开发和实证研究。在一项关于匈牙利后共产主义转型前十年的类似研究(Meyer-Sahling 2008)的基础上，这项研究将深入分析政府内部、部委内部以及随着时间推移对一个关键案例--保加利亚--高级官僚的任免。该项目的一个主要目标是创建一个后共产主义时期的大型数据集，其中包含各部委最高两层公务员--秘书长和副秘书长--的传记、人口、专业和政治信息。该数据集将允许在不同的时间点进行深入调查，这取决于不同程度、政策领域和欧盟在各个部委的风险敞口类型。因此，这项研究有四个主要目标：(I)根据相关文献提出假设，这些文献涉及后共产主义转型、西方民主国家官僚精英的政治化、公共行政的欧洲化以及发展中国家、特别是拉丁美洲行政当局“效率口袋”的出现。(2)建立一个中东欧国家保加利亚的高级官僚数据库，其中包括后共产主义时期所有政府部委最高两层公务员的任命者，对他们的传记信息进行研究和编码。(3)绘制任免模式图，包括政治化模式、选拔模式、取消选拔模式以及高级官员的人口统计和专业特征。(Iv)通过评估对欧盟一体化的敞口--不同类型、程度、时期--对高级官员的选择和取消选择的影响程度，对这些假设进行实证检验。

This research seeks to investigate the impact of European Union (EU) integration on the professionalisation of bureaucratic elites in post-communist Europe. The establishment of a professional and depoliticised civil service has been a precondition for the success of the 'dual transformation' (Bartlett 1997) from one party to multi-party democracy and from a state-planned to market economy. It was also a condition for EU accession of the new member-states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) (Dimitrova 2010).Despite its significance, the process towards depoliticisation in the region has been partially successful at best. On the one hand, it has been shown that the politicisation of the bureaucracy, in particular at the senior level, has persisted (Meyer-Sahling/Veen 2012). On the other hand, it has been argued that EU accession created clusters of exceptionally-skilled, non-partisan personnel, or 'islands of excellence' (Goetz 2001), with two possible consequences - sustained concentration in the institutions, most exposed to the EU, leading to state fragmentation, or spillage to the whole system, thereby increasing the professionalisation of the entire state administration. However, the existence of such 'islands of excellence' or 'pockets of efficiency' (Bersch et al. 2017) has not yet been theoretically developed and empirically researched in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. This is especially true for the level of senior bureaucrats at the interface of politics and administration.Based on a similar study of Hungary (Meyer-Sahling 2008) for the first ten years of post-communist transition, the research will conduct an in-depth analysis of appointments and dismissals of senior bureaucrats within governments, within ministries and over time in one crucial case, Bulgaria. A main objective of this project is the creation of a large dataset for the post-communist period, containing the biographical, demographic, professional and political information of the top two layers of civil service - secretaries-general and vice secretaries-general in various ministries. The dataset will permit an in-depth investigation at different points in time, as determined by varying degrees, policy domains and types of EU exposure in the individual ministries. Consequently, the research has four main objectives:(i) Develop hypotheses based on relevant bodies of literature on post-communist transformation, the politicisation of bureaucratic elites in Western democracies, the Europeanisation of public administration and the emergence of 'pockets of effectiveness' in developing country administrations, especially Latin America. (ii) Build a dataset of senior bureaucrats in one Central and Eastern European country, Bulgaria, which will consist of appointees to the top two layers of civil service in all government ministries for the post-communist period, research and coding of their biographical information.(iii) Map the patterns of appointment and dismissal, including modes of politicisation, selection, deselection and the demographic and professional features of senior bureaucrats. (iv) Empirically test the hypotheses by evaluating the extent to which exposure to EU integration - different types, degrees, periods - shapes the selection and deselection of senior bureaucrats.