Public administration in small European states: size, characteristics and performance

This chapter examines how the functioning and performance of public administration in small European states differs from that in larger countries. Applying a population threshold of 3 million for small states, this chapter builds on an analysis of data on eight small European states and compares them to up to 33 larger EU and OECD countries. The introduction presents the topic and explains the lack of systematic research on size effects in public administration. The following section presents different facets of the size of small states’ bureaucracies and explores relevant cross-country data regarding absolute and relative size. The subsequent section discusses the organizational and behavioral characteristics that are linked to smallness and that are observed from the macro level of the entire bureaucracy to the micro level of the individual public official. Previous theoretical and empirical findings are summarized under three headings: limited range of functions, limited differentiation, and informality. The penultimate section addresses the effects of these peculiarities in terms of good governance, administrative capacities, government performance and effectiveness, and compares several cross-country governance indicators. The chapter concludes with implications for future research.