Renewing the Socialist Past or Moving toward the European Administrative Space?

Abstract

Do east-central European bureaucrats more resemble their socialist-era predecessors or their member-state counterparts? Are socialist patterns persisting, or are we witnessing isomorphism toward a European Administrative Space (EAS)? Or both? I examine these questions through the Czech and Slovak cases. I begin by contrasting two ideal types: state-socialist administrative space and EAS. I present evidence from a survey of 296 Czech and Slovak managers and argue that Czech and Slovak administrations occupy interstices between state-socialist and European ideals. Although there is some evidence of convergence, Czech and Slovak administrations operate in spaces considerably distant from the EAS.