In this seminar, Wolfgang Drechsler discusses the development of Public Administration (PA) – both in practice and theory – in the former ‘Second World’, which has been a quite cohesive research area, during the last 30 years. We will go from the old Soviet bureaucracy, via the market-based reforms of the 1990s and the effects of the Global Financial Crisis, to today’s situation, where cohesion might have vanished and at least one former Soviet Republic seems to be in the global top of digital PA. Finally, we will discuss the relatively new research topic of whether in this region, ‘Islamic PA’ exists (again) – and if so, where and how.

Wolfgang Drechsler is Professor of Governance at Tallinn University of Technology’s Ragnar Nurkse Department. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Marburg and an Honorary Doctorate from Corvinus University Budapest. In civil service, he has been Advisor to the President of Estonia, Executive Secretary with the German Wissenschaftsrat during German Reunification, and, as an APSA Congressional Fellow, Senior Legislative Analyst in the United States Congress.