Issue № 66. February 2018

Opportunities and Limitations of the Administrative Reform in Syria

Special representative on interaction with the Syrian Arab Republic, Russian Trade and Economic Development Council; graduate student, School of Public Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation.
E-mail: naeim.hurmuz@mail.ru

The article discusses the nature of administrative reform that represents a set of actions changing the public administration in order to improve its effectiveness and enhance the satisfaction of social needs. The research into the administrative reforms conducted during the last decades in Syria, with its specific socio-political conditions of war, economic degradation, civil strife and the weakening of the social functions of the state, helped to identify significant restrictions faced by the public administration. Those include the current socio-political and economic conditions, the excess of centralization, the complexity of management procedures, the lack of transparency and accountability, the contradictions of legislative base, the low productivity and the poor coordination between various agencies. In this article some recommendations that provide opportunities to improve the efficiency of public administration and effective implementation of administrative reforms in Syria and other countries of the world in similar conditions are provided.

Keywords

Administrative reform, Syria, governance, management functions.