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The evolution and reform of public policies face new challenges amidst the economic, social, and political conditions of the electoral year 2024. Indeed, the electoral year of 2024 appears to have a significant global impact, given the elections in countries with significant geopolitical influence such as the USA, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and the European Union. The choice between Trump and Biden in the USA, in particular, captures the attention not only of Americans but also of the entire world. Certainly, electoral years are crucial moments for democracies worldwide, and the fact that over 75 states have scheduled elections in a single year is impressive. It is a sign of people's engagement and desire to exercise their right to vote and influence the political direction of their countries. However, it is important to underline that elections are not always a guarantee of a healthy democracy, as there can be various issues such as electoral fraud, voter intimidation, and other undemocratic practices that can distort the electoral process. The year 2024 is a unique electoral year in Romania - with European, local, legislative, and presidential elections.

The article aims to analyze the level of politicization of civil service in Romania, its goals, and consequences. We adopted a rather narrow perspective on politicization and we concentrated mainly on analyzing the recruitment, promotion, and dismissal of civil servants based on political criteria. The research findings were used to discuss the consequences of politicization on the governance of public institutions during turbulent times. In this regard, we conducted an email-based survey of the civil servants. The majority of the sample was composed of graduates of public administration programs at four major universities in Romania, who work in public institutions. We collected the data between May and November 2023 and we obtained 211 valid questionnaires. We found that appointments based on political criteria lower the work motivation of public employees, and increase the level of incompetence and instability of public institutions. The most affected are public employees in management positions, those who have longer work experience in the public sector, and those who work in public institutions that are part of central administration. Therefore, frequent changes based on political criteria lower the capacity of public institutions to respond to disruptive events by generating a loss of expertise, instability, and discontinuity in policy implementation. However, turbulent times require flexibility and adaptation to unexpected and unpredictable events, and political appointees might be more responsive and cooperative.

The main objective of the modernization process of the public administration, a process that takes place in all democratic states, and currently in the member states of the European Union I is given a major importance, is the improvement of public services distributed to the population. To this end, the aim is to simplify administrative procedures by emphasizing digitization, thus facilitating access to information between citizens and public authorities in both directions. The digitalization strategy of the public sector prepares the management of change, removes administrators' resistance to structural changes, and since digital has become the main means of communication between administration and users, that strategy includes not only the expansion of technical equipment - hard and networks - but also, of even greater importance and greater, the emphasis on professional training, basic or specialized, in the IT field. The article presents the directions for immediate and/or longer-term action, namely the improvement of the quality of public services by connecting administrations throughout the country with users, individuals or legal entities, and, in a program that will take place over a longer period, increasing the effectiveness of the entire modernized system, which will be reflected in an improvement in quality and productivity.

This article traces the evolution of the measures taken by the European Union regarding climate change, on which the devastating effects of the health crisis are overlapped. The issue of climate change has been debated since 2016 when the first global agreement with binding legal force was launched in Paris. The agreement was signed in April and ratified by the European Union six months later. This background is rounded by the great crisis caused by Covid 19, crisis that has been spreading rapidly with the European area since 2020. In this context, the European Union decides to establish a temporary financial instrument, the Next Generation EU, with a total value of 750 billion Euros, separate from the long-term budget of the Union. The aim is to provide support to Member States against the challenges generated by the spread of the pandemic. The recovery and resilience mechanism is the main pillar of Next Generation and has an allocated budget of €672.5 billion. The scope of the recovery and resilience mechanism is to provide the necessary support for essential investments and reforms in order to recover and improve the economic and social resilience of the Member States.

The problem of the leadership structures of human communities is more actual than ever since humanity is facing an ever-increasing number of challenges. Throughout recent history, countries developed three major types of political regimes: presidential, parliamentary, and semi-presidential. All these regimes are subject to criticism and each of them is proving to have advantages and disadvantages. The type of political system of Romania is yet a subject of debate. Although depending on various authors there are different criteria to include a certain political regime among parliamentary or semi-presidential types of the regime, I consider that according to the Constitution, Romania has a pure parliamentary form of government. Though, in practice, Romania seems to resemble what a number of specialists wrote about the French political system. That is, it alternates from a parliamentary to a presidential type of political regime.

The macroeconomic evolution since the beginning of 2022, worldwide, but also at regional and national level, marks major imbalances, caused by several factors, among which the vulnerability of the energy system as a whole is a major one. Demand and supply in all forms of energy, both in terms of production and distribution, have unsustainable gaps, which implies the need the need for public authorities to intervene through the design and implementation of appropriate strategies to address the challenges of the transition in energy resources and, at the same time, to remove the effects of the crisis of the energy system, a crisis that is felt in the vast majority of the states of the world.

This article aims to present a brief analysis of the 2022 moment in the light of the evolution occurred on the labor market under double crisis conditions (pandemic and energy crisis), on the one hand, and of the way of adapting labor resources to the new conditions, on the other hand. The European and Member States welfare depends on the way people adapt themselves or are helped to adapt to the economic and social environment imposed by the new living conditions that have occurred worldwide in recent years. Given this socio-economic situation, we intend to sum-up the way in which labor work has been affected and changed and whether it has succeeded in adapting to the new challenges. During the elaboration of this study, the political, strategic and economic perspective was radically changed. On 21 February 2022, after a period of extreme tensions, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to recognize administrative regions Donețk and Luhansk of Ukraine as independent entities and to send troops of Russian Federation to these areas. In the morning of 24 February 2022, Russian Federation began the illegal invasion of Ukraine, an independent state, member of the UN.

How can we live together? It is a question that Pierre Manent is raising in one of his pathbreaking works. One of his answers is because we learned to create lines of separations. We created an instru­ment that is above our religious beliefs: the state. The importance of this accomplishment is obvious if we are looking at those polities in which the state is still imposing a unique religion. Furthermore, one of the main characteristics of our modern societies is the separation between state and politics. This sep­aration is directly linked with our statute of citizens with equal rights, irrespective of our political beliefs.

This article aims to analyze the current situation in the light of the way of managing human resources under crisis conditions, on the one hand, and of the way of adapting labor resources to the new conditions, on the other hand. The national and European welfare depends on the way people adapt themselves or are helped to adapt to the economic and social environment imposed by the new living conditions. We find ourselves in the midst of a crisis imposed by the pandemic that broke out in December 2019 and unfortunately, far from being resolved too soon, given the emergence of new mutations of the virus. Given this socio-economic situation, we intend to sum-up the way in which human resources have been affected and changed and how they have succeeded or not in adapting to the new working conditions. We will consider the analysis of the evolution of the government policies on the wage system, the conditions of compensation during the non-working period, the health system and the way the reforms in industry, education and health are taken over.

National economies, but also the global economy as a whole, face major challenges caused primarily by the effects of the corona pandemic, to which are added factors that stimulate destabilizing trends in the value chain in the international economy: a new industrial revolution in the digital age; accentuation of nationalism and, implicitly, of protectionism; the urgent need to protect the natural environment, etc. In a such unstable economic and social situation, the policies and programs developed and implemented by public authorities are crucial both for economic development and for improving the quality of life. Public interventions of any kind: in the field of public finances; monetary policy; those aimed at investments; technical and technological progress, etc. will have to consider, on the one hand, the increase of the added value in the productive sectors of the national economy that present comparative advantage and, on the other hand, given equally important, to ensure the material, human, capital resources for this development, simultaneously with the appropriate satisfaction of life needs - food, health, education, services, etc. - of the population. In this sense, the institutional sectoral structure of the national economy has always been, but especially in the present period, a major importance for policy makers, and sectoral prioritization in public policy interventions is a constant concern of the utmost importance for economic and social resilience of any country.

Administrative history was for a long period of time a field neglected by historians. Successful leaders, major battles or important events were more attractive for those who recorded the history of humanity than the unspectacular day by day work of some clerks. But although we know relatively few things about the public administration of ancient Egypt or ancient China, or about the administrative systems developed by the successive empires that dominated the Persian Gulf area, often known as the „fertile crescent”, we may have the certainty that the vast projects undertaken by those civilizations could not be possible without the existence of a performant public administration. The purpose of this article is to unfold de factors that influenced the development of public administration over time and over empires, and their legacies for the current public administration.

The last modification of Romanian administrative organization happened in 1968, according to the Law no. 2/1968. The provisions of the mentioned law introduced serious restrictions for any attempt to modify the actual administrative organization of the country. However, the administrative reorganization is needed because the socio-demographic situation of the country has changed significantly since the end of the communist regime. The actual administrative organization of the country creates a number of obstacles for the further development of the country, generates waste of resources and inequalities between citizens. The article addresses the problem of territorial fragmentation of Romania, and it analyzes the solutions adopted by other European countries that faced the same problem.

In 1998, the law on ministers’ cabinets institutionalized the position of special advisers to the dignitaries, which allowed the prime-minister, ministers, secretaries of state, prefects, mayors, presidents of county councils and other dignitaries to hire personal counsellors to assist them in their activities. The paper investigates the background of these advisers. We aim to grasp a better understanding of the special advisers, such as their educational background, former professions, number of years in the office, and the roles they perform within dignitaries’ cabinets. A key focus of the paper is on analyzing the expertise they provide to the dignitaries, as previous research on Romania showed that they are carriers of political and administrative roles. We explore whether they are facilitators of communication process in a multi-level network of policy making, and whether they perform co-ordination responsibilities on the dignitaries’ behalf on some day-to-day activities.

This article seeks to analyze the time-being by means of the possibilities to reform public policies (at national and European level) which concern the economic and social area. The national and European social and economic well-being depends on the sustainability of the economic and social policies and on the determination to reform the system. We are considering the analysis of the evolution of the governmental policies regarding the status and evolution of labor force, the pension system and the assumption of the key structural reforms for economy and public administration. The economic resources required for the reform are affected by the new challenges emerged internationally: a potential new economic crisis, the management of the developments emerged on the energy markets, the management of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, etc.

After a complex year, with deep trends of geopolitical changes, the new year 2019 promises to be full of events in what concerns the social, economic, political and even geostrategic area. The key events of last year (the uncertain course of the Brexit, the profound lack of reforms at EU level, the year-end social events of France, the hostile manifestations of the Russian Federation towards the West, the oscillating evolution of certain European states in what concerns the values of the rule of law, the economic war between China – the United States, the Presidency of Romania to the EU Council etc.) shall greatly influence the evolution of the economy at the European and global level. This paperwork aims to analyze the main consequences of recent events on short term evolutions from the economic, social and political perspective. We also aim to analyze the realities and main potential evolutions in what concerns the economic, social and political status of this year of turning for the European Union.

This study aims to present a short review of the facts and perspectives of the social policies under the terms of the economic, social and political conditions of 2018. After a complicated year, both politically and economically, with deep changes in terms of legislation, 2018 promises to be full of challenges in what concerns the economic,social and political area. The economic and political events of last year (the negotiations on the Brexit, USA paradigm changes, governmental uncertainty in Germany, still visible manifestations of Russia, the still uncertain situation in the European area, etc.) shall have an impact on the evolution of the Romanian economy and on the governmental policies. We hereby intend to analyze the facts and the main potential evolutions regarding the situation of the reforms of the social policies area from the perspective of Romania and of the European Union.

The increasing demographic decline in the recent years creates major malfunctions on the Romania and the European Union labor markets. The social and economic consequences of the demographic phenomenon are increasingly reflected in the structure of the labor market, actual level of families’ income and in the sustainability of medium and long term governmental social and economic policies. Such evolution requires a re-establishment of public policies, education system, a reorientation of the knowledge-based economy, and the awareness of the increasingly important role of the business environment not affected by the presence of politics.

Following the turbulent year of 2016, with deep geopolitical changes, the new year of 2017 promises to be full of challenges in what concerns the economic, social, political and geostrategic area. The key events of the last year (the Brexit, the elections in the USA, the events in Turkey, the force demonstrations of Russia, the situation of the migration wave etc.) shall have an impact on the global economic development and on the repositioning of its main actors. This paperwork intends to analyze the main consequences of the recent events on the short term progress in what concerns the economic, social, political and geostrategic area. We hereby intend to review the facts and the main potential progress on the economic status of this year which was so complicated, both for the European Union and for every member of it.

Corruption is one of the most concerningproblems of the contemporary societies. It isespecially a serious issue for countries in transitionto democracy. Romania is one of the caseswhere corruption seems to be a problem that hasno solutions. Much emphasis was placed on theimprovement of the functioning of justice, andsome positive signs seemed to appear in the lastfew years. But justice is like a surgeon who iscutting but is hardly putting something instead.Therefore, I am advocating that an emphasisshould be placed on the development of a soundcivil service that will ensure an improved ethicalconduct in the public service.

The paper proposes to analyze from a national and European perspective the reform possibilities of public policies which regard the social-economic sphere. We thus take into consideration the analysis of the public policies’ evolution regarding the health system, pensions system, demographic stimulation and the undertaking of key-structural reforms for economy and administration. Resources marked as necessary for a reform are burdened by new challenges emerged on the international agenda: a new economic crisis with starting point in China, managing evolutions on fuel markets, managing the refugees exodus situation which forces the European Union’s frontiers, etc. Establishing social-economic security at national level as well as in the European Union depends on the pragmatism of economic and social policies as well as on the courage to start a reform.

The present paper is intended as a natural continuation to the study “Public policies and electoral cycles” – a paper presented at Challenges of the Knowledge Society – CKS – 2015. The evolution and reform of public policies meet new challenges under the social-economic and political conditions of the 2016 electoral year. The year 2016 is electoral in Romania, Austria, the Czech Republic, Ireland, the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation as well as in the United States of America – presidential elections. We propose to analyze this year’s probable evolution of public policies. Aside from elections, the governments of several states, as well as the European Union’s structures of leadership, are called to offer viable solutions with which the international arena is confronting: the migrations wave from the Middle East and the refugees’ seemingly impossible integration, the probable economic crisis in China, urgent reforms which must be adopted for an European cohesion.

The present endeavor proposes the analysis of public politics which regard the energy sector. The energy sector represents a fundamental and determining component in the states’ social-economic development, a sector which is related even to national security. The European Union is the largest energy importer on a global scale, importing approximately half of the energy demand and the pessimistic projection is placed at approximately 70% in the perspective of the following two decades. Accomplishing energy security on the European Union’s level implies a number of directions for action: diversifying the sources and routes of transport in regard to natural gases; intertwining member countries so that no E.U. state is left isolated in crisis situations; decreasing dependency of conventional sources and increasing energy efficiency; reinforced dialogue with energy suppliers.

This paper is meant to be an extension of our studies published over recent years, which were meant to seek some answers regarding the existing cause-effect relationship between the economic, financial, demograph and food crisis. In the said article we place the human resource, in its sense of labor force and demograph potential as well, in the middle of the economic, financial, demography and even the food crisis. Provided that in the previous case we demonstrated the hypothesis according to which a food crisis can be caused as well as lead to the migration of the active population to other countries (especially from the rural area) and the agglomeration of underprivileged population in certain geographic areas, we are currently resuming to the mutations recorded by the human resource, as part of the active population, under the aspect of social and economic disequilibrium.

This paper aims to find some answers regarding the long term sustainability of the pension system. Romania’s pension system originates from the invalidity insurances and pension system designed by the German cancellor Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismark in 1889. From a European perspective, Romania has to fill an obvious gap regarding the reformation of the national public pension system. International experience, particularly of the last 130 years, indicates that, in actuality, multiple pension systems have been put into function in most of the world’s countries and which are diferenciated by some elements (organizing and managing the system, defyning pension rights, method of forming the resources, the pension’s level rapported to the average income etc.) and after the eficacity degree dependent on internal influences, social, economic and demographic environment, and last but not least by the political factor.

In this paper we are looking at the cause-effect relationship between the economic, financial, demographic and food crises. Crises are interrelated and need to be viewed together, as the effects of one crisis are or may represent causes for another crisis. The current food crisis translates today in food price increases, in the level of health of the population that does not have enough resources for a balanced diet and in obesity problems of the young generation (Romania ranks third among European countries). All these issues with immediate and direct effects over the population in our country have generated our interest to conduct a rigorous and careful observation on the development of the phenomenon of food crisis. Food crisis, its causes and consequences – aging population, the migration of the active population to other countries (especially from the rural areas) and the agglomeration of the disadvantaged population in certain geographical areas, can cause social and economic imbalances.

Public administration reform and reform in general is a never ending story. The human so-cieties are evolving and so do their needs. Pub-lic administration has to keep the pace with the changes that are taking place in society. Specifc issues like ageing of the population and the mi-gration from small to larger communities, or from poor to wealthy regions are placing supplemen-tary burdens on modern administrative systems for decades. The economic crisis that started in 2008 made administrative matters even more complicated. Functional economies and consol-idated democracies proved to be vulnerable to what was considered by many as a market failure. The crisis and the responses of the governments around the world raised a number of questions related to the role that state and public authority in general should play in a modern democracy. The paper is briefy exploring the challenges that administrative systems from the new European Union member states and from the candidatestates were or are facing in their attempt to meet the requirements of the European Union mem-bership, and is proposing a challenging measure: the development of an acquis communautaire for the feld of public administration and consequent-ly the establishment of a correspondent structure inside the European Commission. The acquis communautaire will comprise of a minimum set of principles, widely accepted, that should rep-resent a ‘to do list’ for new member states that are having diffculties in promoting a sound and sustainable reform in public administration.

Major dysfunctionalities can arise from the demographic decline, both on a social level and from the perspective of the economic-financial evolution of the world’s states. The obvious aging of the industrialized states’ population overlapping the import of cheap workforce in the developing countries can start mutations whose consequences are somewhat predictable but discouraging. An accelerated urbanization of the states is foreseen, as well as the decrease of birthrates, negative external migration, increase of mortality and its stagnation in a larger value than that of the birthrate, and not least the population’s aging will hinder a part of the developing countries to sustain a high rhythm of long-term economical increase. The socialeconomic consequences will be reflected in the labor market, the householders’ amount of income as well as in the education’s level. All of these aspects call for a rethinking of the public politics, especially of the social insurance’s system and of the education, a reorientation of the economy based on the increase of specializing in production and productivity, as well as a financial stability unburdened by the politics’ interference in the business environment.

The said paper is meant to be an extension of the studies published last year under the title “Food Crisis Overlapping the Economic Crisis” and “The Demographic Crisis and its Consequences”, studies which were meant to seek some answers regarding the existing causality between the economic, financial, demographic and food crisis. In the said article we place the human resource, in its sense of labor force and demographic potential as well, in the middle of the economic, financial, demographic and even the food crisis. Provided that in the previous case we demonstrated the hypothesis according to which a food crisis can be caused as well as lead to the migration of the active population to other countries (especially from the rural area) and the agglomeration of underprivileged population in certain geographical areas, we are currently resuming to the mutations recorded by the human resource, as part of the active population, under the aspect of social and economic disequilibrium.

The said paper proposes to seak some answers regarding the long term sustainability of the pension system. Romania’s pension system originates from the invalidity insurances and pension system designed by the German cancellor Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismark in 1889. From a European perspective, Romania has to fill an obvious gap regarding the reformation of the national public pension system. International experience, particularly of the last 130 years, indicates that, in actuality, multiple pension systems have been put into function in most of the world’s countries and which are diferenciated by some elements (organizing and managing the system, defyning pension rights, method of forming the resources, the pension’s level rapported to the average income etc.) and after the eficacity degree dependent on internal influences, social, economic and demographic environment, and last but not least by the political factor.

The present paper seeks to find some answers regarding the existent causality between the economic, financial, demographic and food crises. Crises are interrelated, thus one crisis cannot be analyzed without the other, as the effects of one crisis are or may represent causes for another crisis. The current food crisis translates today in food price increases, in the health of the population that does not have enough resources for a balanced diet and in obesity problems of the young generation (Romania ranks third among European countries). All these issues with immediate and direct effects over the population in our country determined us to conduct a rigorous and careful observation on the development of the phenomenon of food crisis. Food crisis, its causes and consequences – aging population, the migration of the active population to other countries (especially from the rural areas) and the agglomeration of the disadvantaged population in certain geographical areas, can cause social and economic imbalances.

The demographic decline can create major dysfunctionalities not only on a social level but also from the perspective of the economic-financial evolution of the world’s states. The obvious aging of the industrialized states’ population overlapping the import of cheap workforce in the developing countries can start mutations whose consequences are somewhat predictable but discouraging. First, an accelerated urbanization of the states is foreseen, second, the decrease of birthrates, negative external migration, increase of mortality and its stagnation in a larger value than that of the birthrate, and not least the population’s aging will hinder a part of the developing countries to sustain a high rhythm of long-term economic increase. The social-economic consequences will be reflected in the labor market, the householders’ amount of income as well as in the education’s level. All these impose a rethinking of the public politics, especially of the social insurance’s system and of the education, a reorientation of the economy based on the increase of specializing in production and productivity, as well as a financial stability unburdened by the politics’ interference in the business environment.

In crisis situations, the competitiveness of transnational companies becomes a particularly complex concept, due to the fact that said business entities are continuously moving within the context of internationalization and increasing use of global strategies. Given the current economic context, one cannot merely assess the competitiveness level of any given transnational company from a static standpoint, depending on the turnover, sales volume or number of employees of said company, but such assessment needs to be made from a dynamic standpoint, in close connection with the internal and international business environment in which that company carries out its activity.

For nearly a century now, economists have studied the advantages and disadvantages of financial systems based on either banks or financial markets in their attempt to forward economic growth and a better capital resources allocation. Nevertheless, the effects of the financial crisis that began in 2007 over the capital market are not only numerous, but also affect financial institutions, the stock exchange volume and list, the behaviour of market investors and not least such generate the need for capital market regulations to be amended. Even so, due to measures that have been taken, in Romania the stock exchange works on profit, while the effects of the financial crisis over such still fail to occur.

Globalization represents a myriad of processes of undeniable complexity and variable dynamics, which cover various society areas. It can depict various aspects of phenomenon, ideology, strategy, or all in one place. Globalization is with no doubt a complex concept that bears diverse significations which refer to many sides: the economical, the political, the cultural one etc. Most authors view as particularly important the economic side of globalization, while they seem to be looking over the political, social or cultural aspects of this phenomenon. Thus the optimists view contemporary globalization as a new phase in which all the world’s states are subjected to sanctions from the global market, while skeptics argue that the globalization phenomenon determines chain reactions, incontrollable here and there, in conditions of a present crisis, precisely through the interdependency between states.

The world crisis that began in 2008 has negative influences over financial and economical-social structures, mainly affecting the young working population. The most affected by the current economical and financial crisis is the youth. Jobs offer for young people seems to have decreased to a significant extent, while they of all categories of job candidates are the most affected precisely due to their lack of experience and to the high costs for training new employees under the current competitive labour market conditions. Data from a study by the National Employment Agency indicate for 2010 that only 6.36% of young unemployed (under the age of 25) found jobs within the first three months. In the same time, the main specializations for which personnel was still being recruited at the end of 2010 were IT, outsourcing, accountancy, engineering, retail and pharmaceuticals, according to recruitment agencies.

Corruption is a widespread phenomenon. No country and no political regime were immune in front of it. Another pessimistic statement related to the issue is that corruption seems to be very “sticky, once is there it stays there” (Rothstein, 2007). This opinion is sustained also by the fact that in the last decades there were only two successful stories in eradicating corruption: Hong Kong and Singapore. But these are small countries and the anticorruption measures were not always consistent with democratic principles. Romania resembles a case of persistent corruption so, according with what was said above, the conclusion would be that there are few chances to improve our country’s situation. Still we present an example that may prove the opposite. During the years 2005- 2006 the Ministry of Administration and Interior undertook a public policy that aimed to simplify the administrative procedures for the documents issued by the ministry. The result was a consistent reduction in the time needed for issuing those documents. Also the petty corruption that flourished previously in the field was eradicated.

The paper is an attempt to describe and explain the evolution of the state and in particular in Western Europe, an area were the modern democratic regimes originated. As in the early stages of the political thought wast stated by Aristotle, men is a “political animal”. Still, being aware about the constraint resulted from the living under the strain of the rules imposed by the forms of human association called states, the question is what were the motives that determined the human beings to accept and even develop such kind of organizations. Also, it is important to understand why the modern democratic political regimes developed in a such narow geographical area as Western Europe and what were the conditions that favorized this particular kind of evolution. As is presented in the paper, the Western European societies evolved from a stage characterized by a high level a desorder and violence to what the french author Francois Guizot is designing as “the Government and the Country”.

The paper examines and reframes severaltheories and approaches regarding the decisionmakingprocess and the politico-administrativerelations. The inner logic and the structure of thispaper should be scrutinized as an aggregate ofthree interdependent concepts. Firstly, we mentionbriefly the theoretical context of decision-makingconsisting out of a plethora of models developedin time. Subsequently, an overview of thepolitico-administrative affinities is presented tothe reader in the second section of the paper withan emphasis on the patterns and asymmetriesof powers between politicians and bureaucrats.Finally, the purpose of this paper lies in offeringan up-to-date theoretical perspective referring tothe political means of oversight and control overthe bureaucracy, due to which use the politicalactors underscore and heighten their roles of majordecision makers.

Although the politico-administrative relati-onships represent a weird field for many of those not specialized in public administration the importance of the issue cannot be ignored. The influence of politicians in the policy making processes is at stake. Politicians are claiming the right to impose their political programs because they are representing the will of the people mandated by vote. Bureaucrats have expertise and better knowledge of the needs of the citizens coming from the day by day interaction with them. The facts presented in the present paper show that, with few exceptions, countries experience increasing political influence over the decision making processes. Even administrative systems with strong bureaucratic traditions, such as Sweden and Germany, face elements of politicization. What seems to be important for the well functioning of the modern societies is keeping an appropriate equilibrium between the two components of the Government.

The challenges that confront public administration and consequently the civil servants are ever increasing as the society became more complex. The lack of resources is causing even greater difficulties for public institutions in the process of service delivery. Public – private partnership is one of the solutions to the mentioned problem and to many others such as efficiency, quality, risk assessment and so. The involvement of the private companies in activities related to public administration including the policy development process is increasing. This process is likely to change the face of public administration in the next years.

Even if the theory of Max Weber regarding administrative systems is criticized by a number of specialists in the field, its importance for the evolution of administrative science cannot be overestimated. This article is trying to make a brief introduction in the way that prebureaucratic administrative systems evolved to more formalized models. The increasing complexity of the human communities was the main element that conduct to more sofisticated and rational sets of rules.

The hystorical evolution of the different civil service systems has a great importancce for understanding of the way that the modern administration is functioning. This article presents briefly the most important stages in the development process in some of the countries that influenced in a high degree the administration throughout the world.

Public administration in Romania is faced with the acute need of improving its manner of functioning. These pressures, either economic, institutional, social, or of other nature, ought not be neglected by a country that aims towards integration in European Union. A correct understanding and a consistent use of evaluation of public programs in Romanian administrative structures is an essential component for the above mentioned process.

The caption of our article is Admission 2000 –the Profile of the applicants to Public Administration Department, “Babes Bolyai University”. We tried to establish a profile of Public Administration Department applicants based on a research developed between 28 of August and 1 of September. The questionnaires were filled out by all the potential students who applied in the first, the third and the fifth day of enlistment, representing 239 applicants. This article describes the research results and theirs scientific interpretation.

The paper discusses the management by objectives (MBO) in Public Administration from the management systems perspective. It starts with an important distinction for the discussion: that between public and private management, the analysis of the management systems oriented inputs (financial management), oriented process and oriented output (MBO); the explanation of the MBO’s structure, its advantages but also the conditions it requested to be fully functional.

In the modern theory of state, public administration appears like a different, distinguished state-power. However one of the fundamental issue that a modern state have to solve is the means and the degree of control that the other powers of the state have to exercise on public administration. The present paper is a short presentation of the main forms of control over the public administration that are mostly used by the legislative, judicial and executive power.

The article presents the Romanian local elections held in June 2000. While local elections are often used by Romanian parties as a preliminary test of future general election, the electoral system used made them more then that. We have in here an incumbency effect that made mayors’ re-election possible unregarding to their political affiliation, we have a different electoral campaign, with different vehicles of propaganda, and possible strange local coalitions among rival parties due to the fact that the presidents of county councils and deputy mayors are elected by the councilors.

Romania, like other countries in transition towards a democratic system of government, faces, as a weakness, the challenge posed by the lack of citizen participation to political and administrative decisions. This paper intends to show that similar difficulties exist in communication process between citizens and officials in traditional democracies and to underline the importance of central-local relations framework in the modern administrative systems.

The Presidential Elections in America were a very tough contest in which the entire democratic system was involved in solving the closest race since 1960. Election system, party system, state executive and legislative, state and federal courts all were involved and discussed in a harsh dispute. After more than a month US Supreme Court had the final word. The decision was a difficult and on a fragile constitutional basis.