One of the most serious problems facing developing countries, including Serbia among them, is the lack of professional academic institutions for education, professional training and innovative specialization of state/public incumbents for different departments of state/public services, both in the country (from national plan to local government) and abroad – European, regional and global institutions.
Although the education of high quality incumbents for public sector is one of the most profitable investments, it was never recognised as such in above mentioned environments, so it remains the main reason for unsatisfactory efficiency and effectiveness in the work of administrative bodies and organizations. Hence the occasional demands and expectations for rationalization and modernization of those levers of power are stigmatized with old practice and habits of narrow-interest, partisan-personal reconsolidations. The examples of division of the electoral, political spoils unequivocally show that the other attributes of personality, knowledge and experience, as well as the career logic are secondary, which deprives the system’s institutions of its key resource. Of course, that phenomenon is bad for both the state and its citizens. As if the images and predicaments from parliamentary practice that were seen for years, along with impressions as effects of executive and administrative authorities, are not enough to stop this improvisation and laicisation practice. Foreign partners from political and economic circles, administrative institutions and corporate organizations and educated citizens of such states have problems with impacts of such administration. Those less educated and uneducated think of it as a fate of every government. The additional problems, however, lie in the fact that the future decisions are conditioned by decisions made in the present. There is the significant difference between developed and undeveloped societies, those that not only look to the future but also anticipate it, and those staring in the past, from which they can hardly see the future clearly.
But, let us go back to the present and consider status, professional, educational and promotional value of public administration profession, service and career in Serbia. Besides mentioned lack of academic institutions for education of state/public incumbents, there are other unsatisfactory circumstances. For example, there’s no social and professional consensus which theoretical and empirical school might be a role model for our community. Should the state establish such an educational institution independently, which is the practice in some prestigious administrations, or should it accomplish this mission through public/private partnerships, or will it rely on the cooperation with one of the recognized and prestigious schools from abroad? Additional motives for the change of existing alarmingly inert state of education of state/public incumbents are grounded in facts that only a few relevant disciplines in the programs of undergraduate and graduate studies have been accredited at local institutions of higher education in the field of social sciences, regardless of their status of state/private ownership position. The accompanying staff teaching, regardless of the “winding roads” of acquisition of professional positions, also requires qualitative elevation and broadening of academic and professional knowledge and recognition gain, of course in additional academic environments and professional associations, immediate and wider international environment.
There are a few such examples! Furthermore, for now too obvious reasons the reputation of state incumbents is not respectable and challenging anymore, especially not for those young and ambitious people who are looking for more competitive and lucrative professional challenges and faster promotions, so, as the experience has shown, the best students are not enrolling for the studies of administration. Those that do enrol, have modest knowledge and quite different motivation. They recognize the greater prospect of employment in public sector, in the times where the state is the main employer and political party most reliable exclusive promoters! The analysis of textbook quality and educational material, the narrower disciplinary area of public administration, which is also significantly lagging behind, also couldn’t appease the experts of the scope of administrative thought from the countries with longer and better administrative tradition. Translations and publishing quality textbooks from environments with higher administrative culture is sporadic and inconsistent; it is mostly done by some publishers, while higher education institutions are doing it even less frequently. Such deficiencies and shortcomings cannot be replaced by occasional vocational courses and trainings, which are often not the most consistent regarding the content and needs of domestic administration! All those conclusions point to the unambiguous conclusion that, under such circumstances, it is not possible to acquire needed, appropriate and expected lucrative knowledge nor competences for discovering and establishing new development visions in this important area – state and public administration. Only with gradual and essential change of this lethargic condition we could expect recognizable shifts in multidimensional qualities of public administration, which can be provided and improved by adequately educated, specialized public administrators and managers.
Let us conclude – in order to change this disadvantageous and situation without prospects, the conceiving of a special state strategy for education of state officials, in whose education competent representatives of state authority (legislative, administrative and judicial) would participate, experts from selected academic communities from home and abroad, representatives of economic and financial capital, representative organizations, interested IT foundations etc. In order to realize this consensually enacted strategy, besides aforementioned institutions, specialized evaluation agencies would also take part, along with mass media productions. At the same time, the new policy of state scholarships for talented students on prestigious faculties and schools abroad, that are specialised for special professional profiles in the domain of economy, law, politics, public policy, societal activities etc. On this socially significant public call, by the logic of a good and sustainable business policy, leading domestic and foreign business circles would probably have responded.
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Prof. Mijat Damjanović, Coordinator of Public Administration sector of Public Policy Institute