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L'Allemagne est confrontée à d'énormes défis : les structures traditionnelles de l’administration ne peuvent plus traiter de manière adéquate la crise climatique et la destruction des écosystèmes, la pandémie du Covid-19 et l'évolution démographique et technologique rapides. Une transition culturelle fondamentale est nécessaire au sein de l'administration publique, afin de pouvoir diriger l'Allemagne à travers les transformations en cours et à venir dans les prochaines décennies de manière plus efficace, plus rapide et plus adaptée. Cette transition culturelle implique une redéfinition par l’administration publique de ses missions et de son rôle, des principes de fonctionnement plus agiles, des compétences plus modernes, une ouverture horizontale et verticale de l'État, un engagement sérieux pour la participation citoyenne et la transparence, une coopération institutionnalisée avec la société civile, la science et les entreprises, un fédéralisme structuré du bas vers le haut - et bien plus encore. Pour nous, les co-auteur.ice.s, la modernisation de l'administration publique est devenue une question de viabilité de notre pays et de notre démocratie. Il ne s'agit pas seulement de faire face aux défis, aux crises, et aux effets profonds de la transformation numérique et socio-écologique, mais aussi d’être en mesure d'organiser, de préserver et de développer davantage notre communauté démocratique dans les décennies à venir. Dans ce document, nous avons rassemblé notre longue expérience professionnelle de l'administration, de la science, ainsi que des projets de transformation et d'innovation. Nous sommes unis par notre conviction qu'une administration moderne et efficace est une condition préalable pour préserver une démocratie solide. Nous nous engageons à inscrire la modernisation et la transition culturelle de l'administration au coeur de l’agenda politique de la nouvelle période législative. Dans le travail du gouvernement à venir, la question du « COMMENT » mettre en oeuvre rapidement et efficacement le programme politique entériné, doit avoir autant d'importance que le contenu de ce programme. Dans cette optique, nos propositions concernent particulièrement le gouvernement fédéral, afin d’influencer également les autres niveaux politico-administratifs (États fédéraux, municipalités) ainsi que d'autres domaines du secteur public.

Germany is facing enormous challenges: The climate crisis and the destruction of ecosystems, the Covid-19 pandemic,and rapid demographic and technological change cannot be adequately addressed in Germany's traditional administrative structures. Instead, a fundamental cultural change is needed in the public administration in order to be able to lead Germany more quickly, anticipatorily and effectively through the next decades of transformation. This includes, in particular, a new self-conceptionof the administration as well as agile processes,state-of-the-artcompetencies, a horizontal and vertical opening of the state, serious public participation and transparency, institutionalised cooperation with civil society, scienceas well asbusiness,andbottom-up federalismamong other points. For us co-authors, the modernisation of public administration has become a question of the future viability of our country and our democracy. It is not just a matter of overcoming challenges, crises and a digital and socio-ecological transformation, but also of being able to organise our democratic community well, preserve it and develop it further in the coming decades. In this paper, we have contributed our many years of professional experience in administration, academia, science and transformation and innovation projects.We are united in our belief of a modern and effective administration as a prerequisite for a strong democracy. We are committed to putting cultural change and the modernisation of the administration on the agenda as a central goal for the new legislative period.In the work of the coming government, the question of HOW the agreed political agenda can be implemented effectively and quickly must have as much importance as the question of content. Here, our proposal refers in particular to the federal level, in order to influence from there other political-administrative levels (federal states, municipalities) as well as other areas of the public sector.

Deutschland steht vor gewaltigen Herausforderungen: Klimakrise und Zerstörung derÖkosysteme, die Covid-19 Pandemie und der rasante demographische und technologischeWandel lassen sich in den tradierten Verwaltungsstrukturen nicht mehr angemessenadressieren. Es bedarf eines grundlegenden Kulturwandels in der öffentlichen Verwaltung,um Deutschland schneller, antizipativer und effektiver durch die nächsten Jahrzehnte derTransformationen führen zu können. Dazu gehören ein neues Selbstverständnis sowieentsprechende agile Prozesse, zeitgemäße Kompetenzen, eine horizontale und vertikaleÖffnung des Staates, ernst gemeinte Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung und Transparenz,institutionalisierte Zusammenarbeit mit der Zivilgesellschaft, Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft,bottom-up Föderalismus – und vieles mehr. Für uns Co-Autor:innen ist die Modernisierung der öffentlichen Verwaltung zu einer Frageder Zukunftsfähigkeit unseres Landes und unserer Demokratie geworden. Es geht nicht alleinum die Bewältigung von Herausforderungen, Krisen und eine bis in die Tiefe wirkendedigitale und sozial-ökologische Transformation, sondern auch darum, unser demokratischesGemeinwesen in den nächsten Jahrzehnten gut organisieren, bewahren und zeitgemäßweiterentwickeln zu können. Wir haben in diesem Papier unsere langjährige fachliche Erfahrung aus der Verwaltung, ausder Wissenschaft und aus Transformations- und Innovationsprojekten eingebracht. Uns eintder Glaube an eine zeitgemäße und effektive Verwaltung als Voraussetzung einer starkenDemokratie.Wir setzen uns dafür ein, den Kulturwandel und die Modernisierung der Verwaltung alszentrales Ziel für die neue Legislaturperiode auf die Agenda zu setzen. In der kommendenRegierungsarbeit muss die Frage, WIE die vereinbarte politische Agenda wirksam und schnellumgesetzt werden kann, genauso viel Bedeutung haben, wie die Frage nach den Inhalten.Mit Blick hierauf beziehen sich unsere Vorschläge insbesondere auf die Bundesebene, umvon dort auch auf die anderen politisch-administrativen Ebenen (Bundesländer, Kommunen)sowie auf andere Bereiche des öffentlichen Sektors einzuwirken.Dazu benennen wir acht konkrete Handlungsfelder.&nbsp

The coronavirus crisis has been an unusual event, with no obvious blueprint for action in terms of health or economic policies. Information and knowledge regarding how the pandemic would unfold was and remains incomplete; moreover, lockdown-style restrictions are well outside the usual policy toolbox, and therefore economic measures (emergency packages) had to be designed within a very short period of time.

Finland is among the richest and happiest countries in the world. In spite of cuts in public spending over the past few decades, welfare state arrangements are an important cause of citizens’ satisfaction. Given this, Finland may have been in a better position than many other countries to meet the challenges of the pandemic and may have had fewer vulnerabilities than other countries. There were relatively few COVID‐19-related deaths in Finland in 2020. However, the economic consequences of restrictions were considerable and unemployment rates are high.

A key feature of Estonia’s performance during the COVID-19 crisis has been sectoral unevenness. This has mainly been caused by two factors: the varying maturity of institutional structures and paradigmatic policy change.

Sweden’s approach to managing the coronavirus crisis was dominated by a series of nonbinding guidelines and recommendations that served as the framework for contagion mitigation measures throughout 2020 (Ludvigsson 2020, Petridou 2020), that is, “nudges against pandemics” (Pierre 2020). This approach attracted considerable attention, since it departed from most national approaches, including the ones by the country’s geographically proximate and culturally similar Nordic neighbors. Conversely, the rate of deaths due to the pandemic has been higher in Sweden than in many European countries.

Although politicization is a perennial research topic in public administration to investigate relationships between ministers and civil servants, the concept still lacks clarification. This article contributes to this literature by systematically identifying different conceptualizations of politicization and suggests a typology including three politicization mechanisms to strengthen the political responsiveness of the ministerial bureaucracy: formal, functional and administrative politicization. The typology is empirically validated through a comparative case analysis of politicization mechanisms in Germany, Belgium, the UK and Denmark. The empirical analysis further refines the general idea of Western democracies becoming ‘simply’ more politicized, by illustrating how some politicization mechanisms do not continue to increase, but stabilize – at least for the time being.

This article studies the perception of the EU Commission's Secretariat General in policy-making. Recently, research on EU institutions devotes increasing attention to analyzing structures and procedures of decision-making in EU institutions, most notably the EU Commission. Conventionally, the EU Commission is portrayed as a fragmented organization, divided along the lines of staff nationality, sectoral responsibilities and cabinets and General Directorates (DGs). The Secretariat General has long been viewed a weak actor that is hardly able or motivated to steer internal decision-making. However, recent research indicates a changing role of the Secretariat General as a pro-active broker and last arbiter. This article studies how the Secretariat General is perceived by the DGs in policy coordination and argues that this perception depends on the pattern of political authority, bureaucratic roles and the relevance and the alternatives prevailing in the policy field. The article is based on data from a survey among Commission officials.