The Effect of Public Administration Reforms under the Post-New Public Management Paradigm

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the reform of public administration is a sort of Achilles heel of modern state especially, because the bureaucracies could not give up to the features of old public administration. However, the public administration, under the pressure of some international driving forces (global economic crisis, interaction with the EU system, Europeanization etc.) and development of several paradigms (new public management, post-new public management, corporate governance) has to adjust its policies, procedures, structures and relations with citizens and business and to function more effectively within the EU framework. Today, public administration is moving in new directions. Reforms are focusing on the quality of services for citizens and business on the efficiency of administration. The focus of the paper is on selected reform area in Romanian public administration, namely de-bureaucratisation and simplification of the procedures for citizens, business and administration to achieve the European standards and to be defined by transparency, predictability, responsibility, adaptability and effectiveness. As research methodology, the study adopts a case-oriented approach to advance its arguments, using both quantitative and qualitative data, published by European and national institutions.