Performance management in the Baltic States and Russia: success against the odds?

Abstract

This article analyses the public management reform process in Latvia, Lithuania and Russia, the only three post-Communist states that have sought to introduce comprehensive performance management systems in the public sector. The central premise of the article is that the introduction of such reforms can be successful even in public management systems that are not `advanced'. This contradicts the widely held notion that performance-based public management systems are not suitable for `developing' countries. The article concludes that if sufficient political support and a dedicated reform team in the civil service are present, and performance management systems are introduced in a step-by-step manner, significant improvement in the effectiveness and efficiency of public management systems can be achieved. The case of the two Baltic States studied in the article, which moved from being laggards in the EU accession process to among its best performing members, provides a strong argument that a more radical approach to public management reform can pay off, even in public management systems in development.