Years:
2021-2023

Budget:
€ 31.000

Lead Partner:
Professor Laura Polverari, Coordinator and principal investigator

This study aims to assess the degree to which the pandemic, and the EU policy responses to it (particularly the Recovery and Resilience Facility, RRF, and National Recovery and Resilience Plans, NRRPs), might accelerate structural reform processes of domestic Public Administrations(PAs) and alter hitherto dominant PA reform paradigms. Will the PA reforms implemented under the NRRPs achieve the intended goals of lasting PA strengthening, as foreseen by the Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs)? How do the reforms address the trade-off between the short-term needs of NRRP implementation and long-term structural PA restructuring? Does the design of the reforms show a shift in paradigm and goals that are coherent with the CSRs, or do they risk exacerbating existing weaknesses, namely bureaucratic politicization and within-country territorial disparities? Through a mixed-method design, relying on comparative case study and survey experiment methods, the research addresses these questions with a focus on two countries that are characterised by similar PA traditions and weaknesses: Greece and Italy.