International Aid, Administrative Reform and the Politics of EU Accession

The Case of Albania

Artan Karini

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783319978345
• Topic: Politique et relations internationales
• Subtopic: Politique publique

This book provides a detailed analysis of the dimensions and dynamics of the role of international aid in the reform and capacity development of public service in post-communist Albania. It challenges the technocratic, results-based management frameworks used by aid organizations and reports of official donors operating in the country context, and offers a qualitative and critical assessment of the role of aid in administrative reform and capacity building. Secondly, the book highlights the specificity of the national politico-administrative context and its ability to modify the process of policy transfer from aid organizations to the Albanian bureaucracy. In doing so, it illustrates the domestic challenges in the transfer process towards policy learning and makes a valuable contribution to the debate over the (voluntary vs. coercive) administrative reform in Southeast Europe in relation to the politics of EU accession.

© The Author(s) 2019

Artan KariniInternational Aid, Administrative Reform and the Politics of EU Accessionhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97834-5_1

Begin Abstract

1. Scope, Design and Framework

Artan Karini^{1, 2}

(1)

The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

(2)

Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

Artan Karini

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

This book looks at the nexus of two conventionally distinct areas of study, ‘international aid’ and ‘administrative capacity building’ in Albania, a middle-income country located in Southeast Europe (SEE) and an official ‘EU candidate’ since June 2014. In this chapter, a general background to the research study, motivated by both a gap in the literature in terms of the interaction between aid policy and administrative capacity, key theoretical constructs applied, design considerations and observations from my professional experiences as a development practitioner in post-communist Albania are provided.

Keywords

International aidAdministrative capacity buildingAlbaniaEU candidate

End Abstract

1.1 Introduction

This book looks at the nexus of two conventionally distinct areas of study, ‘international aid’ and ‘administrative capacity building’ in Albania, a middle-income country located in Southeast Europe (SEE) and an official ‘EU candidate’ since June 2014.

In this chapter, a general background to the research study, motivated by both a gap in the literature in terms of the interaction between aid policy and administrative capacity, key theoretical constructs applied, design considerations and observations from my professional experiences as a development practitioner in post-communist Albania are provided. Through a theoretical review, which reflects the essential underpinnings of the literature on policy transfer—a frame designed by D. Dolowitz and D. Marsh (1996)—which I use to connect all the aspects of the inquiry leading up to the write-up of this book, I discuss the implications of the findings of this work for the broad discourse on the salient role of policy transfer in the developing world further in this chapter. Paramount to understanding, the lesson learned from the case study is an account of the sociopolitical developments related to administrative reform in post-communist Albania (Chapter 2). The findings themselves, which are summarized in an exploratory, yet critical analysis of the aid-supported programmes and institutions/mechanisms of international aid are the crux of Chapters 3 and 4, followed by a conclusive discussion in Chapters 5 and 6, which as informed by the theoretical frame I use to explore the case of aid towards administrative capacity building (and reform) in post-communist Albania, aim at exploring the scope of voluntary-coercive tension in the given context.¹ I hope that the original goal I set myself at the onset of the book—as promised to its readership—does indeed provide an alternative story in terms of understanding this particular dimension of international aid in post-communist Albania—once most isolated country in Europe—and its current and future relationships with the community of international organizations, so undeniably important as the country which aspires to the join the European family, where it belongs.

1.2 Overview

The development management literature argues that while some pressure for reform in less-developed countries comes from their governments, much of it comes from international donor organizations that want to impose their concept of ‘good governance’ (Peters 2001). Thus, donors have tended to locate the main governance challenges at the levels of politics and institutions rather than organizations and have looked to political scientists rather than development management specialists to address them (Dahl-Østergaard et al. 2005; Manning 2008; McCourt 2011). The truth remains that international aid as reflected in the policies of ‘Western’ governments and their development agencies representing them (i.e. ‘donors’) has focused on economic and political dimensions of development whereby institutional reform is often a conditionality for aid provision.

In the context of post-communist states of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Albania included, international (aid) organizations have substantially intervened in their transition processes, but after years of assistance, a key observation made is that, alongside positive effects, those interventions have also had negative and unintended impacts on those processes (Zellner 2008). In the specific case of SEE, aid has focused on the politico-economic stabilization of the region and membership of international organizations amidst warnings that it may have led to path dependency and created deterministic assumptions often reflected in resistance on the part of institutions benefiting from aid (Denzau and North 1994; Pierson 2000, 2004; Stubbs 2005). Besides, accession into the European Union (EU) and requirements associated with the process have driven the aid agenda of most donors operating in the region (Verheijen 2003; Hoffmann 2005; Dimitrova 2005).

Taking Albania, as an illustrative case of a country which, after a difficult transition to democracy and capitalism after the collapse of communism in 1991, is currently recognized by the EU as an ‘official candidate country’, this book seeks to shed light upon the challenges that aid organizations (particularly the EU) face in promoting development in the country during the post-communist era (Hoffmann 2005). However, to discuss all aid-supported reforms and capacity-building interventions in the public and non-profit sectors in post-communist Albania in a single doctoral book would be overly ambitious and unrealistic. Nor does this book make any claims about the role/impact of aid on the overall democratization of the country in the years following the collapse of communism. The rationale for the choice of the ‘administrative reform’ component of the international aid is based on both its significance in terms of political processes (such as EU accession) and its implications for the quality of public services (WB 2008). However, it must be stressed that the latter is an objective of reform rather than of this book. Capacity building is instrumental not only to the administrative reform agenda but closely linked to the politics of EU accession. Therefore, this book is also intended to make a contribution to the current debate over the internally vs. externally motivated nature of reform of a country and what can be learned from it that can apply to regional/global levels.

1.3 The Significance of the Book

The criticism of the international aid organizations involved in administrative reform in Albania (but other countries in the SEE as well)—mainly consisting of mission and/or consultancy reports by the EU, the WB and the OECD and the UNDP—systematically points to the lack of administrative capacities and of progress in reforms, mainly linked to the overemphasized ‘communist legacy’ as reasons for the persistence of weak institutions in the country.² As mentioned above, the contribution this book intends to make is that, while drawing on assumptions of policy transfer, it offers a qualitative perspective on administrative reform and capacity building as linked to the role of donors and the interaction of the latter with recipients. Most importantly, it maintains that over 25 years after the collapse of the communist system in Albania, it is about time that research addressed this underresearched area.

In spite of the abundance of textbooks on aid reflecting views ranging from discussions on the interventionist role of aid agencies in promotion of development to aid conditionality and implications for reform in developing countries (Bauer 1985; Riddell 1987) to, more recently, OECD reports on aid effectiveness, a comprehensive analysis of the aid impact on domestic reform in the research context has, to the best of my knowledge, not yet been published. Even though this book does not intend to test or develop a specific theory or model to measure such impact, it is believed that its uniqueness lies in the very fact that it seeks to bring to light the perspectives of beneficiaries in the assessment of the role of aid in addition to those of donors.

From an empirical perspective, it is maintained that research and development establishments have failed to provide clear models/approaches or ‘criteria for success’ in building capacity and improving performance (ECDPM 2008; DFID 2009). Thus, the key limitation of the literature on capacity issues in development cooperation is that it is based upon the formal results-based management and project framework approaches rather than research-based frameworks for measuring the impact of such cooperation (Watson 2005). In the context of this study, while some prior empirical research has been conducted and published with regard to the role of donors in the strengthening of public organizations in the region, many argue that most of that research has not been based on strong research methodology and frameworks (Fritz 2006). The researcher’s position is that the research to date has been confined to consultants’ reports on the weak performance of public institutions and their lack of capacities, which as discussed earlier has been linked to the failure of administrative reforms in the given context. Therefore, its significance is that it offers an alternative approach to studying the progress of administrative reform by looking into other related variables such as the adoption of international reform doctrines and the interaction between donors and public servants in the research context.

This book is intended for researchers, development practitioners, bureaucrats and policy-makers interested in reform processes in Albania (and the SEE region). In the light of the criticism of research as having limited policy relevance, based on the premise that ‘mainstream social science policy research and analysis is an important source, at least potentially, of information for policy analysts and decision makers’ (Vaughan and Buss 1998: xi), the idea behind it is to produce findings and perhaps some recommendations which might benefit improvements in aid policy-making, administrative reform and overall development processes on country and regional levels.

My experience as an institutional development consultant for Albanian NGOs—heavily funded by donors—and yet, in my professional opinion, continuing to suffer from critical accountability and transparency issues, has served as another motivating factor in undertaking field research for this book. Thus, in the light of a broader discourse over the role of state versus that of civil society as a vehicle of ‘good governance’ in development processes globally and in a regional context (Pierre and Rothstein 2011), this book undeniably reflects my own assumption—and perhaps bias—that administrative capacity is precisely important because it highlights the role of the state as a more legitimate conduit towards good governance. However, it must be emphasized that such motivation represents neither the ultimate purpose nor an objective of this research. Indeed, the proposition this work builds on is that while international aid has played a pivotal role in administrative reform and capacity building in post-communist Albania, it has not sufficiently regarded the specificity of the national context and their rather limited role has also had unintended, negative repercussions in terms of the country’s slow progress towards EU accession.

Specifically, this book asks a series of questions: How international aid has influenced the process and implementation of public service reform and capacity building in post-communist Albania? What policie...