New public governance in the Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia

Abstract

The development of this study is motivated by the need to extend the literature and research on New Public Governance in Central and Eastern Europe, by adapting new governance models to the contemporary reality of public service delivery in traditional authoritarian and legal governance cultures. Through a comparative international perspective, the study explores the factors that enhance coproduction at local level in the Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia, with a focus on organizational attitudes towards coproduction and citizen participation, the actors and tools involved, and the extent to which public value was created. The study employs a mixed-methods design, based on qualitative methods, such as expert interview analysis and process tracing, and on quantitative methods, through several ordinal logistic regression models. The study introduces a conceptual analytical framework intended to guide the analysis and the research questions. The main concepts analyzed are political culture, coproduction, and the creation of public value. The dissertation provides an analysis of governance, economic, and information and technology indicators, for a better framing of the trends and factors that contribute to the transition towards governance. Finally, the paper presents recommendations for improving governance practices and calls for considering the specifics of the local context when adopting best practices.