The international observance days can also serve as days of reflection. And in this respect, the 'United Nations Day for Public Administration' can serve as a good pretext not only for celebrating the achievements of a number of notable public organisations, but also for reappraising the key challenges currently faced by governments and, above all, their administrative systems. A look at the present with a view to the future.
The challenges are many and they vary according to theparticular country. But some are general in nature and they would appear to bepertinent in one way or another to many countries, including our own, Mexico.Firstly, attention could be drawn to the challenge inherent in the (scant)confidence that citizens have in their government, in other words the low levelof belief among society that governments are doing 'what is correct', what"is perceived as fair'. There is, of course, nothing new here: this issueemerged in more or less similar terms in TheCrisis of Democracy, the report published by the Trilateral Commission backin 1975. However, it continues to beof such importance that it has served as a starting point for the more recentcomparative report produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment (OECD) on the performance of governments of member countries (Government at a Glance 2013).
Independently of its strictly political aspects, thechallenge represented by the (lack of) confidence among citizens is importantin administrative terms, because it would appear to have serious repercussionson the degree to which those governed observe (or fail to observe) the existinglaws (and therefore on how costly it is for the government to monitor theirobservance); on the degree to which those governed support action taken bypublic organisations in critical situations (e.g. floods, regional securityproblems); and it could even be an important factor when it comes to providinglong-term support for 'structural reforms' that are proposed (for example,those that are currently being discussed in Mexico). So how might it bepossible to increase citizens' confidence, firstly in their governments, andthen, more specifically, in the public administration systems with which theyinteract on a daily basis in order to obtain public goods and services, and howcan this be achieved in the short term?
A second challenge is that represented by 'permanentausterity'. Leaving to one side the major economic crises of the past (therecent past: the global crisis of 2008; and the slightly more distant past: theterrible years of 1980-1990 in Mexico), in the current scenario of low economicgrowth on an (inter)national scale and low levels of tax collection within thecountry, it becomes obviously simple to advocate low levels of governmentspending. However, efficiency for efficiency's sake, be this in its moreeconomistic dimension of budget cuts and freezes, or in its somewhat broaderneo-managerial dimension of efficacy, efficiency and economy, is problematicfor at least two reasons.
Firstly, as Professors Christopher Hood and ChristopherPollitt have highlighted, because any 'cutback' strategy (and there is not justone, as people often think) has its own complexities and negativerepercussions. And secondly, as Mark Blyth and David Stuckler/SanjayBasu haveunderlined, because austerity would appear to carry very high economic and,above all, social costs. Now, in a context of inevitable austerity, how can thebudgetary resources of governments be distributed and administered effectively(achieving goals and objectives) and even efficiently (getting rid ofsuperfluous or redundant expenses), but at the same time fairly andresponsibly, without having an unjustified or disproportionate effect on dailyoperation or the future sustainability of public programmes?
A third challenge, whose implications have barely begunto be seriously considered in Mexico, lies in the emergence of new'non-majoritarian' institutions. The basic characteristics of these publicinstitutions, referred to as 'constitutionally autonomous' in Mexico, are thatthey have been created to develop highly specialised functions, under theleadership of persons (in theory) without any political affiliation and withextensive technical knowledge, who enjoy considerable (formal and informal)independence and who, as a result, are not obliged to subordinate institutionaldecisions to the political preferences or priorities of the moment. Thus 'autonomous'institutions respond to a highly distinctive strategy of institutional design,which is potentially useful, but which also leads to majorpolitico-administrative tensions.
To a certain extent, independent central banks,autonomous regulatory agencies and other similar organisations (for a list ofthe Mexican experience, see aquí) respond to what Alasdair Roberts has called 'the logic of discipline':faced by the lack of confidence in the government, the solution is todepoliticise and, more specifically, to construct State institutions, butoutside the government. On occasions, this is probably not only justifiable,but also necessary: the transition from the 'Positive State' (e.g. owner) tothe 'Regulatory State', noted by Giandomenico Majone several decades ago, isperhaps best complemented by the presence and good performance of these typesof institutions. However, in other areas of public policy, matters may bedifferent. How, then, can it be ensured that these new state institutions willgenuinely respond to a cross-party, apolitical and professional logic, and thatat the same time they will be capable of reinforcing the transparency,reputation and legitimacy of regulatory processes in the economic field (e.g.competition, telecommunications), in the political domain (e.g. elections,evaluations) and in the social arena (e.g. access to information), inproductive coordination with the other public and private institutionsinvolved?
The fourth challenge to which attention should be drawnis related with the 'international dimension' of public administration.Although the boundaries of the nation-state continue to be an essential pointof reference, and although when analysis is made there is a strong tendency inMexico to highlight the distinctive 'national' features of anypolitico-administrative development, it is true to say that, at present,international factors are of enormous importance in the evolution of everydaypublic policies. Many of the most complex problems faced by governments todayare transnational: climate change, arms trafficking, migration, drugtrafficking and illnesses, for example. Consequently, what these situationsrequire is co-ordinated international action. Global public goods, rather thanpurely national (local) solutions.
Furthermore, in many highly diverse public policysectors, the dynamics of institutional change would appear to be moreassociated with international interdependence than with national negotiations.The processes of economic liberalisation, the creation of human rightsinstitutions, the approval of regulations for tobacco control and norms forgender balance in public appointments, among many other developments, havehighlighted the centrality of transnational patterns of policy diffusion andtransfer. In other cases, international indices and rankings would appear tocondition the agenda, if not to say the definition of problems and even thepublic policy solutions of national governments, for example, in sectors suchas education and the fight against corruption. Now, given the necessarydistinctive features of each country, how is it possible to consolidate agovernment that is attentive to its international environment, capable ofproviding global solutions and of learning from the policy experiences of othercountries, without falling into the extreme of institutional hom*ogenisation('isomorphism'), which, as Matt Andrews has stressed, does not necessarily leadus to construct better governance conditions?
The politico-administrative challenges currently faced bythe government of any country clearly go beyond those analysed here. However,perhaps the four areas identified here (together with the questions that haveaccompanied them) will serve as a pretext, as on the genuinely memorableobservance days, for enlivening rich, polyphonic, entertaining and passionatediscussion about the type of public administration our country will require inorder to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Mauricio I.Dussauge Laguna (mauricio.dussauge@cide.edu) is a guestlecturer and researcher in the Public Administration Division of CIDE (Centrefor Research and Teaching of Economics).
