Administrative reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina in comparative perspective: A distinctive case of context in motion

This paper illustrates and critically analyses administrative and public management reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) over the period from 1995 to 2020, thereby filling a gap in the literature on post-socialist transition in Europe, which has largely missed this important case. The BiH case of reform is investigated through the analytical-theoretical lens of the ‘Pollitt and Bouckaert model’, the prominent and widely employed framework developed by the late Christopher Pollitt and by Geert Bouckaert. The P&B model provides a lens through which to investigate the BiH case and make it amenable to comparative analyses and discussion. At the same time, the uneasy way with which the BiH case can be accommodated into the P&B model enables to revisit certain features of this very model, thus contributing also theoretically to knowledge generation in the field.