The Agendas of public administration reforms in Lithuania: windows of opportunity in the period 2004-2017

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Public administration reforms; Agenda setting; Windows of opportunity; Policy entrepreneurship.

ENThe article analyses changes in the reform agendas of the Lithuanian government in the period 2004 – 2017. Instead of exploring the systemic and formal agendas of administrative reforms based on government strategies and programmes, it focuses on the institutional and actual agendas of Lithuanian authorities using a set of 20 reform initiatives. In addition to the analysis of the institutional context, we also assess a coupling logic and the exercise of political or bureaucratic entrepreneurship during reform policy making. Th e article fi nds that budgetary constraints and the reform policy priorities of the Lithuanian governments explain the ambitious agendas of administrative reforms during the 2008 – 2012 government and, to a lesser extent, during the 2016 – 2020 government. Th e political logic of coupling and political entrepreneurship dominated the fl ow of the reform process when these governments were in offi ce, producing the top-down approach to reform policy making. In contrast, the 2004 – 2006, 2006 – 2008 and 2012 – 2016 governments relied strongly on a policy-centred logic of coupling together with bureaucratic entrepreneurship, which resulted in the bottom-up approach to administrative reforms in the country. [From the publication]

• Fiscal consolidation and structural reforms in Lithuania in the period 2008-2012 : from grand ambitions to hectic firefighting / Vitalis Nakrošis, Ramūnas Vilpišauskas, Vytautas Kuokštis. International review of administrative sciences. 2015, Vol. 81, no. 3, p. 522–540.
• Linkage between leaders’ behaviour in performance management, organisational justice and work engagement in public sector / Živilė Stankevičiūtė, Asta Savanevičienė. Economies (Basel). 2021, 9, 15, p. 1-24.
• SOE corporate governance reform in Lithuania - explained and empirically tested / Liudas Jurkonis, Šarūnas Merkliopas, Deividas Gabulas. Ekonomika. 2023, t. 102 (1), p. 122-139.
• The Impact of public administration reforms in Lithuania: systemic managerial changes and persisting organizational differences / Rimantas Rauleckas, Vitalis Nakrošis, Rasa Šnapštienė and Ligita Šarkutė. Public administration reforms in Europe : the view from the top / edited by Gerhard Hammerschmid, Steven Van de Walle, Rhys Andrews, Philippe Bezes. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Pub., 2016. P. 105-115.
• When do Lithuanian NGDOs succeed in influencing foreign policy? / Marta Gadeikienė. Politologija. 2022, Nr. 1 (105), p. 53-91.