Politicization beyond the Merit-system Façade. The Intricate Relationship between Formal and Informal Institutions of the Senior Civil Service Systems in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper argues that the role of informal institutions is central to understanding the politicization in Central and Eastern Europe generally and specifically in the formation of senior civil service (SCS) system. We focus on three diverse CEE countries in our analysis: Estonia, Hungary, and Slovakia. Our analysis is based on the framework elaborated by Helmke & Levitsky, of informal institutions and focuses on “competing” informal institution of discretionary power of politicians in personnel SCS decisions. We argue that turning to “substitutive” informal institutions was critical in forming professional SCS in Estonia while relying solely on formal institutions (i.e., law making) in Hungary and Slovakia evidently failed to create a professional formal SCS. We identify factors that in this region may promulgate professionalization. We also test the applicability of the Helmke Levitsky framework and suggest some ways to expand its applicability.