Suchergebnisse

Since the fall of communism and all the way up to the present day, various international initiatives aimed at influencing justice reform in Bulgaria have sought to compel domestic actors to abandon inherited practices characterised by patrimonialism and political clientelism through imported professional and organisational standards. On the basis of an extensive qualitative study of the implementation of international technical assistance initiatives in the Bulgarian judicial system, we revisit the theory of relations between transfers and learning as it has been elaborated in studies of Europeanisation. Starting with an examination of specific reforms to modify the methods of recruiting, appointing and promoting magistrates, the article tackles the construction of an alternative conceptualisation that understands learning as the emergent and cumulative effect of a conjunction of social processes. This effect not only puts into play the process of appropriating exported elements but also carries with it endogenous dynamics, in particular political struggles between groups of justice professionals.

What relations exist between processes for transferring public action solutions between countries, between territories within the same national space and between different sectors and levels of government and the learning to which these transfers give rise in the context of reception? At the theoretical level, the discussion here draws upon a comparison between the literature devoted to policy transfer studies and work on policy learning and organizational learning. It is also supported by a field study concerning the manner in which, over the course of the1990's and the first decade of this century, local actors in Bulgaria did or did not appropriate exogenous solutions imported by means of various types of transfer in the domain of local economic development policies (DEL). As it happens, the classic forms of international cooperation (top-down, bureaucratic, programmatic) have had less impact in terms of learning than have horizontal modes for diffusing administrative innovations: lessons drawn from the experiences of common neighbors, the creation of regional and national forums dedicated to DEL policies, electoral alliances between traditional political elites and activist movements with links to international expert and professional networks and professionalization dynamics among municipal personnel working in this domain. Adapted from the source document.

L'article analyse les processus d'import-export de réformes judiciaires dans le contexte des transitions postcommunistes en Europe. Pour ce faire, nous mobilisons les apports de deux courants de recherche consacrés aux transferts internationaux de règles et de solutions d'action publique : les policy transfer studies et les law and development studies . Les résultats de ces travaux sont questionnés à partir de l'étude empirique de l'action des opérateurs américains de coopération judiciaire en Bulgarie entre 1991 et 2007. Nous montrons que cette coopération, qui vise à remédier à l'état de délégitimation du droit hérité du régime antérieur, est fondée sur un haut degré d'ingérence dans la politique intérieure de la Bulgarie. Pour rendre acceptable cette immixtion, la stratégie américaine consiste à prescrire des programmes de réformes couplant mesures à caractère technique et mesures à finalité politique, ainsi qu'à créer et mobiliser, par le biais de l'expertise, des acteurs domestiques, mais aussi européens, appelés à soutenir les réformes.