Abstract
Although Lithuanian agencies are relatively young, since 1990 they have experienced many organizational changes. The purpose of this article is to explain the change and continuity of Lithuanian agencies and other public sector organizations during 1990–2010 based on the transformative approach. Agency mapping and analysis of other data showed that organizational changes depended on a combination of exogenous and endogenous factors: Lithuania's transition to democracy and market economy, its accession to the European Union, the adoption of government-wide organizational reforms during the economic crisis, and the political turnover.
Notes
1The Lithuanian president, who is directly elected for five years, is the head of state, but he or she is mainly responsible for foreign and security policy.
2The COBRA network is an academic research collaboration in the field of public management. The Lithuanian COBRA survey was carried out in 2008, and its data set was integrated into the COBRA database in 2011. For more information about this network, see http://soc.kuleuven.be/io/cost/survey/index.htm#00
3The case studies included a study of two public security organizations (the National Security Department and the Special Investigation Service), a study of two regulatory agencies (the Communications Regulatory Authority [CRA] and the Competition Council), a study of four EU support agencies implementing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the EU Cohesion Policy (the Lithuanian Agricultural and Food Market Regulation Agency, the National Paying Agency [NPA], the European Social Fund Agency, and the Central Project Management Agency), and a study of the Information Society Development Committee and other organizations involved in the coordination of horizontal policy in the area of information society.
4However, more political stability was gained in the period 2000–2010, when five changes in governments occurred. In addition, the 2008–2012 government had been in office for more than thirty months at the time of writing this article.
5As noted above, it was not possible to calculate the exact number of the agencies within the six policy areas in the beginning of 1990 because the precise birth years of a small number of agencies are unknown, but this did not affect the overall pattern.
6These organizations are in charge of prosecution, unemployment benefits, labor exchange, road maintenance, tax service, broadcasting, national museum, immigration, student loans, national airport, statistics, meteorology, intelligence, and national railway.
7They include one state institution (the prosecutor's office in 1990), two state-owned companies (Lithuanian Railways and Vilnius International Airport in 1991), and one public nonprofit institution (the Lithuanian National Radio and Television in 1990).
8The purpose of the advisory commission was to optimize the structure of public administration and cut down the number of public administration organizations and civil servants.