Differential Legacy Effects: Three Propositions on the Impact of Administrative Traditions on Public Administration Reform in Europe East and West

Abstract

This article compares the status of historical legacies in explanations of administrative reform in Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. It addresses the puzzle that legacy effects in both regions are associated with institutional resilience and persistence even though the administrative history in these two regions differs considerably. The article clarifies the terminological differences between legacies, legacy explanations, legacy effects and administrative traditions. It then identifies three differences between administrative traditions in Europe East and West and argues that these differences matter for a tradition's reproductive capacity, i.e., the degree to which an administrative tradition can act as a persistence-breeding force for contemporary administrative developments. The differences between East and West are (1) the long-term stability versus instability of administrative traditions, (2) the internal consistency versus inconsistency of ideas, institutions and practices as the three constitutive levels of an administrative tradition, and (3) the dependence versus autonomy of an administrative tradition from external, mainly foreign, pressure and influence-seeking. The paper concludes that the reproductive capacity of administrative traditions is likely to be lower for Central and Eastern Europe than for Western Europe.