Suchergebnisse

In this article a presently existing public administration system in Lithuania as well as the position of municipalities(subjects of local self–government) in that system are described, the features of the "real" local self–governmentare being formulated, potentially possible groups of problems of local self–government are distinguished and currentlymain problems of municipalities of Lithuania are indicated.The author of the article notes that in Lithuania up till now the concept of the "real" local self–government hasnot been clearly and unambiguously defined yet. That makes the formulation of target goals, tasks and means as wellas their implementation developing the system of local self–government more difficult. Seeking at least partly to fillthe existing gap, the author of the article formulates eight features of the "real" local self–government.Having defined the problem of local self–government as a deviation from the "normal" conditions for thefunctioning of the local self–government system that cause negative changes in the system, the author of the articleshows the relationship between the "normal" conditions for the functioning of local self–government and the formulatedfeatures of the "real" local self–government. According to this relationship the author of the article indicateseight potentially possible groups of problems of local self–government.On the basis of the accumulated knowledge and acquired experience the author of the article points out fivegroups of currently particularly important problems for local self–government of Lithuania, which are conditionallynamed as follows: 1) suppressed independence; 2) insufficient constructiveness of the relationship among differentlevels of government; 3) economic problems of municipalities; 4) not involving community members in managinglocal affairs; 5) inertness of municipalities.

A genesis of the academic programmes in the field of public administration, tendencies of their development in different countries (includingLithuania) and peculiarities of content are discussed in the article. It is shown that in different periods of development of public administration as anacademic discipline tasks and objectives were changing, however permanently the fundamental concerns were effectiveness in achieving the goals ofgovernment and constitutional support (political effectiveness) and competence in the performance of all public enterprises (managerial effectiveness). Itis why academic programmes in the field of public administration were developed taking into account political, legal, managerial and occupationalperspectives. Modern academic programmes of this field are interdisciplinary. By analysing programmes of different universities, it was found that theydiffer from each other in their structure and courses content, in particularly varies their focus (management, political and legal). It is shown thatcontemporary challenges for public administration (ideas of the new public administration and new public management) are giving new tasks for publicadministration academic programmes and therefore the focus of the programmes is changing more and more often emphasising significance ofmanagement subjects.

Spanish electronic government projects are analysed in this article. These projects are the reduction of pricesfor the Internet connection, information society development, modern tax system in Internet, electronic electionpossibilities and perspectives, "Unified Internet window" project, electronic certificates project, telework establishmentand the perspectives of electronic administration. Spanish electronic government were creating in the realizationof individual projects from the year 1998. Spain is a young and quickly developing European Union state andbecause of this the experience of Spanish e-government projects would be very useful for Lithuania.

Lithuania faces difficult dilemmas in the field of old age security. Aging population, weak bonds betweencurrent wages, salaries and amount of (size of) future pensions causes certain dissatisfactions and risks. They along- side with the pressure of certain interest groups which are interested in possibility to enter financial flows and to take benefits from partial privatization of these flows create certain gnoseological, political and ideological climate surrounding the issue of pension reform. In these circumstances the use of neutral, scientific approach would be helpful. Together with more open, comprehensive, democratic discourse it would add to the rationality, prudence of the decisions concerning the issue.Author of the article argues that the currently functioning pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system together with some shortcomings have its advantages which should not be neglected in the discussion on the pension reforms. On the other hand private pension system based on individual accumulation is not so advantages and effective as its por- trayed by its proponents. It is connected with rather high risk both for individuals and for state. The danger of loss of money in the financial markets in case of downfall of the value of securities and the threat to budgetary stability of the country are two major reasons to refrain from overly enthusiastic attitudes towards private, especially manda- tory, pension funds.The experience of Argentina, Hungary, Poland should caution us against impulsive, non-comprehensive de-cision. West European and especially Scandinavian pattern could serve us a good service.

Deeds and decisions made by Lithuanian politicians and public servants are deserving greater public and mass media attention whenever before.Authors directs readers attention to the aspects of significance of ethics in public administration, characterizes the situation of ethics in contemporaryLithuania. Ethical dimension in Lithuanian politics and administration is underestimated. Lithuania has several laws which define ethical principles forpublic servants, prohibit the conflict of interest etc. Laws without their effective implementation are worthless. Professional code of ethics for politiciansand public servants, ethical education and training could help to create ethical climate and ensure public trust which are very important for democracy.Authors concludes that ethical politics and administration in Lithuania could be reached by formulating ethical strategy on the state level.

Democratic government and public sector modernization presumes equality, majority rule, citizen participation,accountability. Major dimensions of modernization process include management innovations such as totalquality management.The challenges of modern organizations require the objective of the manager. Public sector needs morepeople in managerial roles who can find simplicity and order amidst organizational confusion and chaos.Public organizations dependence on pluralistic decision processes – that is processes through which manydifferent people and groups are likely to be involved in any particular decision – makes the process of managing change in the public sector quite complicated. The classical goal of efficiency and the new public management may become partners in opposing the expansion of citizen participation.

The Internet intelligence of the Lithuanian government and governmental information accessibility to the wider public are analysed and comparedwith the situation in the EU countries. Based around a standard for EU countries questionnaire, the different Internet activities of the Seimas, thePresident office and Lithuanian ministries are investigated and compared with findings of West European countries. The findings show, that the Seimasand the President office closely approach EU countries average level according to Internet intelligence. The analysis shows however most of Lithuanianministries poorly use Internet feedback from society.

The article covers the project management problems, which will be especially important for the Lithuanianpublic sector after joining the European Union and trying to use the Structural and Cohesion funds investmentssuccessfully. The article provides management principles of Structural and Cohesion funds, typical programmerstructure in national and regional levels, the features of preparation and implementation of programmers and projects.It is necessary to provide more intensive training on project management for all levels of Lithuanian publicadministration.

One of today major problems of public administration – defense system of the state and planning of herstrategy. Sucha situation is, because too small attention was paid for it in literature of public administration, like aspecific problem that belong to sector of public administration. This problem often is solved only in military aspect,and is hold as a part of military defense system. There are not enough competitive specialist and experts who wouldunderstand sucha problem and would take part solving it as well.It is very important to understand, that defense system is systematic objekt and all problematic should betaken as a whole system that integrate and accumulate different, even opposite elements. Spectrum of methods isvery wide, and amount is very large, and for realization well-organized and effective management should be involved.Effectiveness of defense system depends on ability to use all possible resources that are in the state. That is whydefense system and control of he implementation should belong to public administration.

The present state of university and professionaleducation in Lithuania and major problems of its developmentare outlined. The possibilities of upgradinguniversity and professional studies are evaluated,taking into account the processes associated withthe integration of Lithuania into the European Union.In addition, the prospects of education developmentare analyzed in the context of transitions characteristicof the states of Central and Eastern Europe.

The civil service in postcommunist Lithuania has been created, legally regulated and developed during the last decade of the twentieth century. The employees working there had to be radically trained at least for two reasons: the needs came from the dinamically developed system and the next package of needs indicated Lithua- nia's attempts for integration with the European Union. The article deals with training development for governmental employees, which is gradually becoming syste- matic and innovative. Lately there has been the training strategy of governmental employees approved. We discuss the possibility to apply the standart of learning organization in public sector. Some problems are to be solved to start to realise the training strategy: the learning has to be systematized, i.e. every civic servant has to be involved in a learning process; the forms of the trainings have to be diversified, the motivation to seek efficiency as well as needs assessment have to be improved. We analize some aspects of financing trainings in different governmental bodies and make conclusion, that there are remarkable differences between them. The need to create the national integra- ted information system of training is stated.

Public policy is a process about selecting strategies and making choices. Public policy making include some steps –getting of agenda, policy formulation, policy adoptions, policy implementation. It must be also evaluated to see theintended results, to revise existing and future public programs and projects. Public policy can be studied as producing threetypes of policies (distributive, regulatory and re-distributive) related with decision making process. Public administration isthe set of processes, structures, functions, methods and procedures. Public administration is the formulation andparticularly implementation of public policy and the examination of the strategies and choices associated with that process.Public administration also can be defined as public programs and projects, profession and as academic field of study.There is no clear separation between administration and politics in the development of government policy and publicadministration. Administrators engage in political acts by recommending legislation as much as by making policydecisions in carrying out the laws. The administrators understanding of managerial issues and policies places them in aposition of substantial expertise, while their knowledge of administrative and legal procedures helps them by suggestingways of managing and enforcing the laws. The most modern forms of governance, administrative innovations allow us toassume that legislative and implementing contents of institutional activity today acquires new specific features. Executivebureaucratic structures using expert-consultation services, get more and more possibilities to really influence not only theimplementation of policy and the estimation of activities, but also to directly influence the preparation of public sectordirections and strategy.

This article examines peculiarities of the development and implementation of environmental protection programmes,taking in account the hierarchy of the programmes as well as the impacts of state regulation in this area.The rationale of applying classic public administration and the new public administration models to the implementationof these programmes is analysed from the position of technical learning, conceptual learning and social learning.The case of Lithuania demonstrates that both at a central and local government levels traditional publicadministration methods are predominant. However central government usually operates at a technical and conceptuallearning levels, while local governments show conceptual and social learning aspects in environmental protection.The latter creates the necessary pre–conditions for the application of the new public administration methods.

This article gives the overview of the implementation of strategic planning system in Lithuania and identifiesthe problems that were posed while implementing the mentioned system.The reforms were practically implemented in 2000 when the Strategic Planning Manual was adopted by theGovernment of Lithuania. The Manual provides instructions for the preparation of strategic plans. In 2000 for thefirst time ministries' and Government agencies' strategic plans were prepared following the budget formation cyclefor the year 2001. Following the Manual the ministries and Government agencies pointed out expected results theywanted to achieve. In this way the activity transformed from process oriented into result oriented. Monitoring andreporting is a fundamental part of a good planning process and in 2002 for the first time ministries and Governmentagencies have reported on the results achieved against their planning targets.This article also includes analysis of experience as well as suggestions for future improvement. Progress isrequired at two levels: first, the political level (the Prime Minister and Ministers) needs to be more actively involvedin the deliberations on priority setting. Second, the administrative level needs to improve decision–making process.