POST-SOVIET TRANSFORMATION OF BUREAUCRACY IN LITHUANIA: MAIN FEATURES AND TRENDS

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the reforms and development of public administration and public bureaucracy in Lithuania from the prism of the post-Soviet transformation concept. In other words, the effort is to establish a continuation of the features of the Soviet bureaucratic - administrative system, to the extent these can be discussed, and their influence on the public bureaucracy of the independent Republic of Lithuania. It is being ascertained that the purpose of the reforms in Lithuania‟s State civil services was to develop a stable, professional and politically neutral public bureaucracy; i.e., a classical bureaucracy based on Max Weber‟s type of an ideal bureaucracy. Certain aspects of reforms were successfully implemented. However, at the behavioural level, the public bureaucracy in post-Soviet Lithuania is still predominately a variant of a pseudobureaucracy. One unforeseen outcome of the reforms was a weakening of political control over the bureaucracy. This occurred, because needed attention was not paid to the two-fold nature of politicization. Along with personnel management that is politicized, the functional politicization of the upper levels of civil service is also known. The latter is specifically considered one of the prerequisites for the successful implementation of public policy, adequate to the political control of public administration. Actualization of plans for thefunctional re-politicization of senior officials was  undertaken after the 2008 elections to theSeimas [parliamentary body] of the Republic of Lithuania. These should not be assessed as a political whim but as a necessary response to the situation which had formed.