Public Administration reforms in Albania and Romania: between the Weberian Model and the New Public Management

A general trend is easily observable in the literature on public administration reforms in post-communist countries and it consists in analyses of the degree of adoption and success of the New Public Management (NPM) model. A relevant implementation gap for some areas of reform which cannot be ascribed to the NPM are highlighted. The combination of these two features - also common, and not by accident, to other European countries - may well be read as the adoption of a modernisation framework different from the NPM, which some authors have come to recognize as a Neo Weberian model. Still, both models are not sufficiently developed and analytical to provide a framework for evaluating country experiences. Therefore, the paper will: 1) perform a systematic review of the literature on the context and cultural dependency of public management reforms, the debate on the NPM and the New Weberianism, with the aim of defining an analytical theoretical framework suitable for the analysis and comparison of country experiences; 2) undertake an in-depth evaluation of public management reform trends in two countries - Albania and Romania - and contrasts these with OECD countries' experience, with the aim of highlighting the approach adopted and how administrative history and traditions influence the reform results. The case studies are analysed with a specific focus on the scope, contents and sequence of reforms as well as on the role of international institutions. Public administrations of some European countries, including Albania and Romania, are not NPM "laggards" but have instead chosen to adopt a different modernisation model: i.e. the New Weberianism. Implications for future research and policy-makers are drawn.