ABSTRACT
Czechia and Slovakia share similar historical legacies in their public sector developments. Embarking on a transition from state socialism to market capitalism and democracy in 1989, both countries underwent wide-ranging economic, political and societal changes. Facing challenges of democratization, transparency and effectiveness, the public sector in both countries underwent important structural and institutional changes during the 1990s and 2000s. During the 1990s, public sector reforms in both countries focused predominantly on incremental changes to legislative structures and capacity building in central and local governments (Nemec 2010). While Czechia selectively introduced reforms towards public sector marketization in the early transition years and remained reluctant to continue with major reforms on other areas, Slovakia started reforming its public sector later but continued in efforts to introduce New Public Management (NPM) principles into some arenas of public sector governance also over the 2000s. Besides domestic political and economic targets, the most important external factors affecting public sector developments over the 2000s were the EU accession of both countries in 2004 and the outburst of the economic crisis in 2008.
