Adjustment under Conditions of Crisis: Irish and Greek Public Administrations in Comparison

The impact of the sovereign debt crisis has been particularly severe in Ireland and Greece. Both countries received financial assistance and were obliged to commit to policy conditionalities for fiscal consolidation and a structural reform agenda. The subsequent period has witnessed a considerable state retrenchment in both cases under study. However, the crisis has also given rise to a period of substantial public service reform. The study attempts to assess the impact of the fiscal adjustment process on the Irish and Greek public administrations. Drawing on empirical evidence from the period 2010–20018, the effect of fiscal crisis and external conditionality on the process of implementing domestic administrative reforms is analyzed with reference to quantitative and qualitative indicators. The findings of the comparative study indicate that the scale of fiscal crisis and changes in public administration do not necessarily go hand in hand. Adapting to external pressures to reform administration does not mean that the direction and the outcomes of reform are obvious or given. The study highlights certain similarities and differences in the strategies used and the external pressure exercised through policy conditionality. A combination of fiscal pressures, programme particularities, country’s reform capacity, organizational recourses and political ownership of reforms may explain the extent and direction of reform, observed variations in outcomes and prospects of reform programmes.