Jahrbuch für europäische Verwaltungsgeschichte 16 (2004)

Titel der Ausgabe 
Jahrbuch für europäische Verwaltungsgeschichte 16 (2004)
Weiterer Titel 
Verwaltungsreformen im Ostseeraum - Réformes administratives dans les pays du littoral baltique - Administrative Reforms in the Baltic Sea Region

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Baden-Baden 2004: Nomos Verlag
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jährlich
ISBN
3-8329-1010-7
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382 Seiten
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65,- €

 

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Institution
Jahrbuch für europäische Verwaltungsgeschichte (JEV); Yearbook of European Administrative History; Annuaire d'histoire administrative européenne; Annuario per la storia amministrativa europea
Land
Deutschland
c/o
Prof. Dr. E. V. Heyen Lehrstuhl für Öffentliches Recht und Europäische Verwaltungsgeschichte Rechts- und Staatswissenschaftliche Fakultät D-17487 Greifswald (Hausadresse: Domstr. 20 D-17489 Greifswald) Vertriebsadresse Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft Postfach 10 03 10, D-76484 Baden-Baden (Hausadresse: Waldseestraße 3-5 D-76484 Baden-Baden) E-Mail: NOMOS@nomos.de
Von
Sabine Wieland

Themenschwerpunkt: Verwaltungsreformen im Ostseeraum - Réformes administratives dans les pays du littoral baltique - Administrative Reforms in the Baltic Sea Region

Herausgeber des Themenschwerpunkts: Erk Volkmar Heyen, Universität Greifswald

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Erk Volkmar Heyen:
Editorial, VII-XI
(Volltext: http://www.uni-greifswald.de/%7Elo1/ed16.htm)

I. Themenschwerpunkt

Erk Volkmar Heyen, Kyra T. Inachin:
Verwaltungsreformen im Grenzraum: Vorpommern im Übergang von schwedischer zu preußischer Herrschaft (1806-1818), 1-26

According to the Westphalian Peace Treaty of 1648, a part of Western Pomerania, including the old Hanseatic cities of Stralsund and Greifswald, was ruled by the Swedish king as duke of Pomerania and prince of Rügen. Thus the country remained a territory of the Holy Roman Empire, with special fundamental laws and privileges for the knighthood and the towns' magistrates. Heavy financial problems of Sweden caused by wars against Russia and Napoleonic France pushed King Gustav IV Adolf to make the Pomeranian estates contribute to a larger extent than usual. The crisis culminated in 1806 when the king abolished all fundamental laws and introduced the Swedish ones, together with a far-reaching reform of the Pomeranian judicial and administrative bodies. The reform had clear rationalizing effects and furthered the separation of two functions: the judicial (based on legal norms) and the political-administrative (oriented towards the advisable and useful to the common weal). As the Empire decayed in 1806, the estates' resistance to the reform failed. Whereas during the French occupation the reform process was interrupted, it was taken up again in 1810-1811 by the new Swedish king Karl XIII, confirming the essentials of the 1806 administrative reform. As Sweden was getting more and more engaged in Scandinavia (Finland had to be ceded to the Russian Empire in 1809, but Norway was acquired in 1814), Prussia succeeded in buying Swedish-Pomerania in 1815 during the Congress of Vienna. However, the integration process on the administrative and legal levels turned out to be difficult and time consuming, as the regional elites resisted again and article VIII of the treaty with Sweden obliged the Prussian government to respect their rights, liberties and privileges as they stood in 1810-1811. The article describes the administrative reform process in Western Pomerania 1806-1818 and tries to explain its difficulties, largely due to the country's character of a border region.

Hagen Fechner:
Funktionalreformen der Grundherrschaft in Mecklenburg 1801-1821: altständische Obrigkeit auf dem Weg zum gewaltenteilenden Staat, 25-51

The administration of the Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg (Schwerin and Strelitz) was feudally based. Territories belonged either to the Ritterschaft (knighthood, embracing the lords of manors), the Landschaft (almost all towns, governed by a burgomaster and his councillors) or to the Domanium (the duke's domain, administered by ducal officials). In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, an economic and social depression effected, in the landed estates, a transformation from more or less unbound and undivided seigniorial authority to more governmental (ducal) authority, separating judicial from administrative functions. In 1801, the Armenordnung (poor-relief statute) established the obligation to provide for native poor persons. In 1821, a new statute determined general standards: founding of poor communities as well as poor boxes and guarantee of efficiency. At the same time the Patrimonialgerichtsordnung (manorial court statute) offered the rural population considerable protection against arbitrary decisions in the manorial courts; the land owners were required to employ trained jurists. Furthermore, the Justizkanzleien and the Oberappellationsgericht (higher courts of justice established by the duke) controlled the qualifications of these jurists and their decisions. The article analyses all these complex reform processes in detail.

Tim Knudsen:
Niedergang des Absolutismus und Aufstieg des Ministerialsystems in Dänemark 1814-1849, 53-70

Starting with a sidelong glance on the introduction of the ministerial system in Norway, where the reform could be achieved within just a few months, the article inquires into the causes why in Denmark, forming with Norway until 1814 a so- called Twin Kingdom, this reform developed into a long process up to the middle of the 19th century. Thus a detailed account of the reform's implementation in Denmark is given. It becomes clear that the process depended not only on the monarchs' reticence to give way to the pressing reorganization. Other factors are also identified. During the reign of Christian VIII's successor, Frederik VII, it plainly appeared that one of the pivotal problems was the need to balance the requirements of administrative modernization and its centralizing effects with the necessity to show consideration to the country's privileged Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, including collateral implications: On the one hand Danish public-servant politicians did not act on an isolated national ground, German reorganization in the German Federation causing anxieties to Copenhagen. On the other hand, compromising on Denmark's national unity upset Denmark's bourgeois national-liberal opposition. However, personal rationale hampered the reform, too, and, linked to it, the introduction of a constitution. As such, divergent views on the cut of the individual ministries held by the protagonists appeared as key obstacles in the last year before the efforts finally succeeded.

Gerret Liebing Schlaber:
Gewaltenteilung und Verwaltungsreform in Schleswig 1831-1869. Modernisierung und Stagnation vor dem Hintergrund des deutsch-dänischen Konflikts, 71-90

In the Duchy of Schleswig, which was a quite independent part of the Danish Monarchy and which had a close administrative relation to Holstein, which belonged to the German Federation as well as to the Danish Monarchy, an increasing number of statesmen and politicians recognized that a separation of powers would be a necessary step towards a modernization of administration and justice. It was the Federal Act of 1815 which demanded a constitution and separation of powers in Holstein. The most important aspect was the independence of the law-courts, while the legislation was still to be exercised by the government, at least with help from a newly created assembly of the estates. This conception was realized when the Duchies (and the Kingdom of Denmark) received their own assemblies, independent higher law-courts and a provincial government. On the other hand, then it was not possible to effect equivalent reforms in the regional and local administration because of the increasing national conflict between Germans and Danes during the 1840s. This culminated in the civil war of 1848-1850. After the war, the newly formed government of the constitutional conglomerate under the Danish Crown renewed the reform process. But very often, the success was limited or restricted to single institutions or counties, because the national conflict continued and hindered sweeping reforms. Only when Schleswig and Holstein in 1864 were separated from the Danish Monarchy, did the Prussian government succeed in introducing the long desired polity completely at all levels.

Lars Nilsson:
Städtische Verwaltungsreform und Sozialpolitik als Vorbereitung des Wohlfahrtsstaates: Stockholm und Kopenhagen 1860-1930, 91-110

Important communal reforms were introduced in Stockholm (1862) and Copenhagen (1857) that widened the competence and duties of the local authorities. Nevertheless, both the Swedish and the Danish states, albeit through different measures, maintained strict control of their capitals. Elections to the local governments were initially restricted in order to secure power and influence for affluent people. General elections with equal voting rights for men and women were introduced in Copenhagen in 1908 and Stockholm in 1919.
The first steps after these reforms saw both cities take control of their infrastructures. The local authorities began to build pipe-bound water systems. Sewage disposal and urban planning were likewise seen as essential communal tasks. Gasworks and other previously private utilities were gradually taken over by the city administration. It was deemed that the cities should take responsibility for their infrastructures, given that they benefited all inhabitants alike.
Attitudes towards social issues were quite different. Poverty, unemployment, famine and shortage of housing were, for instance, seen as individual problems caused by personal shortcomings. Philanthropy was expected to take care of such predicaments, whilst the city administrations should only assist in urgent situations. Societal crises and growing social democratic influence gradually altered these views, and turned social policies into a major municipal topic in the 20th century.

Bradley D. Woodworth:
Administrative Reform and Social Policy in the Baltic Cities of the Russian Empire: Riga and Reval, 1870-1914, 111-150

The all-Russian municipal reform of 1870 brought immense changes to urban self-government in the Baltic region, where the reform was implemented in 1877, and marked increased efforts by St Petersburg to integrate Baltic administrative structures with those of the rest of the empire. Unlike the Magistrate which previously directed city affairs, newly formed city councils created by the reform were not part of the corporative estates, but instead were elected by urban residents who had paid the qualifying amount of property tax. This electoral reform contributed to the weakening of the estate system in Baltic cities, though more so in Reval than in Riga. In both cities it enabled non-Germans to enter city government, although Baltic Germans continued to dominate.
Tensions increased in the mid-1880s between Baltic city governments and the Tsarist state, which imposed Russificatory measures upon municipal administration. Nevertheless, the work of Baltic city councils continued with remarkable efficiency, and a number of major urban reform projects were completed in the last decades of the century, including improvements to city infrastructure and services, and expansion of the education system.
A Tsarist-imposed electoral reform in 1892 (as in 1877, part of an empire-wide reform) narrowed the franchise and increased Tsarist oversight of municipal government. While some urban residents seem to have lost confidence and interest in city government, energetic professionals were increasingly drawn to city government. The skills and optimistic outlook of this new urban elite, which was not tied to the old estate system, were greatly in need in Riga and Reval, which were undergoing rapid population growth and industrialization. In Reval, a group of Estonian electors cooperated with Russian electors to seize control of the city council in 1904.
Despite the chaos that both cities experienced in the 1905 Revolution, elected officials in both Riga and Reval governed with skill and determination, and cooperation between city council deputies of differing nationality was impressive. In both cities, significant progress was made in expanding the primary education system, and further reform and improvements were made in the cities' infrastructure and public services. Voluntary associations also made important contributions to the betterment of urban life.

Øyvind N. Grøndahl, Tore Grønlie:
From the Swedish Ideal to EU Direction: Scandinavian Central-State Administrative Reform in the 1980s and 1990s, in a Post-1945 Perspective, 151-196

The article describes and tries to explain reform policies and developmental trends in the political-administrative systems of Norway, Sweden and Denmark in the 1980s and 1990s, by positioning policies and trends of the last two decades within a perspective of 50 years' Scandinavian post-WW II reform history. All three countries experienced substantial changes, most clearly seen through the autonomization and privatization of public enterprise and through the spread of the principle of single-purpose organization. Throughout this process the political-administrative systems of the three countries became more like one another.
It is suggested, however, that there are strong elements of continuity between the wide-spread anti-bureaucratic sentiments of the generally pro-state 1970s and the anti-state criticism of the 1980s and the 1990s. Furthermore, the view is held that a clear distinction ought to be made between the 1980s and the1990s. While the 1980s were to a large extent dominated by changes in political rhetoric and administrative cultures, the 1990s witnessed a real break-through for forceful reform policies and fundamental organizational reform throughout Scandinavia. Developments as a whole seem to reflect a two-step change in the inspirational basis of political-administrative reform: from one common Scandinavian circle of administrative reform, with Sweden as the ideal, from 1945 throughout the 1970s, via the relatively modest impacts of the OECD programmes of the 1980s, into the EU-dominated 1990s. In a 50-year perspective, political-administrative change in Scandinavia has been grounded as much in inter-Scandinavian reform debate as in reform import. Both sets of reform impulses have contributed towards making the three countries more like one another. Still, fundamental features of the different political-administrative systems have remained unchanged: Danish ministerial rule, Swedish dualism and a Norwegian symbiosis of ministerialism and administrative autonomy.

Astrid Barbara Strohbach, Stefanie Tragl:
Reform der Ministerialverwaltung in Estland und Polen seit 1990. Systemtransformation in der Perspektive des EU-Beitritts, 197-233

The article looks at the constitutional position of ministerial administration within the systems of government, basic reforms and present structures of core governmental institutions and civil service systems in Estonia and Poland. Administrative reforms in both post-communist countries are influenced by system transformation and European integration. While system transformation called for a comprehensive reform of central governments to make them function within a democratic state under the rule of law, EU integration required the expansion and adaptation of administrative capacities in order to implement the acquis communautaire. The EU developed a set of requirements to the candidate states' administrations and assessed them regularly in the so-called Progress Reports.
Estonia is commonly assessed to be one of the "best of class" in terms of economic as well as administrative reforms. This assessment will be reviewed critically in this article, as there is some evidence that also in Estonia administrative reforms are far from being comprehensive. Nevertheless, administrative reforms in Estonia are accompanied by basic consensus of domestic political actors and considerable coherence. Polish public administration met a far more critical assessment during the EU enlargement process. Reform processes show more discontinuity, the direction of upcoming reforms was contested in domestic political discussions. Polish political actors in some cases did not come to an agreement, but delayed reforms and resumed them only in the wake of the EU integration process. The different development paths in Estonia and Poland can be explained by historical factors such as building of a new state versus state continuity, features of the system of government and the party system facilitating or hampering reform consensus and last but not least by the different size of the two countries.

Dieter Schimanke:
Verwaltungsreformen in Schleswig-Holstein und Mecklenburg-Vorpommern seit der deutschen Einheit 1990, 235-256

In the federal system of Germany, the states (Länder) and their respective public administrations are empowered to promulgate various public laws and to implement various programs to give effect to these laws. Two of the states border on the Baltic Sea: Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg - Western Pomerania. They have different backgrounds in the historical development of administrative structures: for about 80 years after the reign of the Danish kings had ended, the former was a province of Prussia, whereas the latter was partly an independent duchy within the German Reich (Mecklenburg) and partly a province of Prussia with a Swedish past (Western Pomerania). In addition, after the Second World War they belonged to different political and administrative systems (West and East Germany, respectively). After German unification in 1990, both states have had to deal with great challenges posed to their public policies and politics. Furthermore, their administrative systems have undergone significant changes (Mecklenburg - Western Pomerania first had to establish a democratic administration after unification). The fundamental data of the two states are fairly comparable, e.g. rather small territories, structural problems, receivers of financial transfers from the other states and the federal government, target areas of EU funds etc. However, the objectives of the administrative reforms are similar only in some areas (two-level administration, i.e. municipal and governmental level, laws on local authorities), yet in others significantly different (reform of municipalities, functions of state administration). In addition, the strategies as to how to implement the reforms differ as well. Whereas Schleswig-Holstein has adopted a pragmatic approach, Mecklenburg - Western Pomerania is developing concepts which can be described as a master-plan.

II. Varia

E. Arfon Rees:
Politics, Administration and Decision-Making in the Soviet Union, 1917-1953, 259-290

The Soviet administrative system underwent a huge expansion with the creation of the "command economy" instituted as part of Stalin's "revolution from above" of 1928-1932. The study of the administrative system itself has been neglected by western scholars, who have concentrated their studies on the political system and processes of decision-making. There are good reasons for this bias: the Soviet administrative system was highly politicised, it lacked a corporate identity, it was reshaped in accordance with the policy priorities of the political leadership which imposed fundamental changes in all major policy fields.
Since the opening of the Soviet archives from 1991 onwards, the organisation and operation of the Soviet political-administrative system has been subject to detailed study in a way that previously was quite impossible. The article reviews the work done by western and Russian scholars in this field, especially the new research on the inner workings of the higher party and governmental bodies. These studies have brought out very clearly the great complexity of the operation of the political-administrative system, and have highlighted the inner conflicts within and between different institutions. It is argued that these new revelations call for new approaches to the study of the Soviet political-administrative system. Only by taking several factors into account, as is explained in detail, can we establish an adequate approach to the conceptualisation on a comparative basis of the Stalinist political-administrative system, being sensible of its specific character and those features which it shared with other systems.

Erk Volkmar Heyen, Matthias Müller:
Zum Wandel der Selbstdarstellung von Städten des Ostseeraums in den Bildprogrammen ihrer Rathäuser: Danzig (1600) und Oslo (1950), 291-309

Convincing and persuading by means of images have always been an important element of government on all political levels. As to Danzig, in early modern times a famous, rich and internationally minded urban republic, its pictorial self-representation finds its height in the superbly carved and painted ceiling of the town hall's "rote Ratsstube", with its allegories of political and economic virtues, combining pictura historica and pictura symbolica in a Calvinist perspective, and assimilating the Christian painting tradition beginning with the Buon Governo frescoes in the town hall of Siena (14th century). The article analyses the paintings in their architectural setting. This is also done with the paintings, finished 350 years later, in the town hall of Oslo, the capital of Norway, an independent nation state since 1905 only. These paintings demonstrate the completely different way the city sees itself: proud of having fought the Nazi occupation during the Second World War and built up a welfare state, as in neighbouring Scandinavian countries, overcoming class divisions. Traces of Christian faith, still visible in the caritas allegory, and of transcendental embedding of political-administrative action are fading away to the benefit of more secularised signs of cognitive and normative orientation, signs of human confidence in self-made scientific, societal and political progress.

III. Forum

Peter Waldron:
Recent Literature on the Political-Administrative System in Tsarist Russia after 1850, 313-328

Between 1850 and 1917 the Russian state experienced substantial reforms of its administrative and political system. These changes affected all levels of government, from the introduction of local elected councils in both country and city, to the major constitutional reforms of 1905 and 1906 that saw the establishment of a fully-fledged parliamentary system. At the same time, the Tsarist state had to work hard to maintain control of its domains. Reform was accompanied by repression and, even when reform was at its height, as in 1905 and 1906, the regime put down rebellion with great severity. Policing the empire was just as significant as reforming its institutions.
The books reviewed in the article reflect the tensions that were present inside the Tsarist regime about the wisdom of pursuing reform in an autocratic state. They discuss some of the central individuals involved at the highest levels of the Russian state, especially the Tsars themselves and their most senior ministers, and counterpoise this with studies of the institutional structures that were developing after 1850. The influence of central individuals on the process of change and the ways in which institutions were shaped by their attitudes is an important part of these works. The fate of the Tsarist regime is also illuminated by these books: while the government implemented reforms, there was no whole-hearted commitment to change across the spectrum of the Russian state. The disputes about the right path that Russia should follow – reform or repression? – help to explain the demise of the Tsarist state in 1917.

Robert Schweitzer:
Neuere Literatur zur Verwaltungsgeschichte der nordwestlichen Grenzräume des Russischen Reiches 1710-1917, 329-346

During its last two centuries the Russian Empire had granted or preserved self-government in various degrees after the acquisition of the northwestern borderlands (Finland, Baltic countries), but at the same time it took efforts to systematize and centralize the administration. In theory, Russia was one and indivisible, but everyday administrative practice sometimes entailed far-reaching autonomies. Local self-government shielded the small peoples in the region against integration, but it was not fully coincident with "good government", as it guaranteed privileges of the landowning upper classes.
In Finland, a 12-year research program on the central administration not only yielded 26 book-length publications but opened up new directions of interpretations. Besides recruiting policies and administrative culture it concentrated on the mixed institutions linking Finland to Russia. The balance between the Russian Governor General presiding over a domestic Senate, and the St Petersburg Ministry of Finnish affairs headed by a Finn, was decisive for Finland's autonomy, and not a presumptive constitutional guarantee.
In the Baltic countries the 50-year lag in factual research has to be made up for. Yet there are – especially in Estonia, to some extent in Lithuania – innovative studies which by scrutinizing the administration challenge cherished views. The "Russificatory" judicial reforms put "good government" against backward self-government of the Baltic Germans. To a lesser extent also the Russian measures in greater Lithuania after 1795 were far from merely detrimental to the country.

Hanna Kozińska-Witt:
Von der Volksdemokratie zur Europäischen Union: Entwicklung eines Lehrbuchs der polnischen Verwaltungsgeschichte, 347-356

The article focuses on a textbook by Hubert Izdebski, which has been published five times since 1980. The evolution of some merits in this book illustrates how the Polish administration as well as the Polish view of the administration have changed during this period. In both of the first two editions, the world of administrative systems is depicted as divided in two ideological parts with their own different problems and administrations, the capitalist and the communist. Not surprisingly, the later editions present a one-world vision. The Polish administration presented there has its roots in universal developments. The Soviet period is now considered as only a short and provisory set-up, which could be terminated and dismantled without serious difficulties. The traditions of the Second Polish Republic, appearing more important and solid, serve as a guiding reference for the portrayal of the Third Republic's institutional set after 1990.

Håkan Forsell:
Comparing Municipal Governance in European Urban History, 357-367

The review explores the link between urban history and administrative history by evaluating the methodological considerations and empirical perspectives in the volume of essays "Municipal Services and Employees in the Modern City", edited by Michèle Dagenais, Irene Maver and Pierre-Yves Saunier in 2003. The volume deals with municipal officials and their importance to urban development in different European and American cities during the modern industrial era. Urban and local bureaucrats and technical expertise have previously featured only peripherally in historical studies. The publication highlights a variety of important aspects of political and administrative structures and traditions linking local circumstances with general currents of historical development. The volume also advocates a comparative methodological approach to urban history. However, the publication fails to come to terms in an explicit, analytical way with the issue of different legislations, different criteria for legitimacy and power, and not least, different national historiographical backgrounds. To overcome the difficulties associated with a comparative approach applied to the empirical basis of historical local or urban society, the review concludes that it is of vital importance to make empirical material analysable, in order to advance the cultural history of local governance through common historical concepts and heuristic models.

Anschriften der Verfasser, 381-382

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