From the Ottoman Legacy to Modern Public Management Systems: Evidence from Turkey, Kosova and Kazakhstan

Abstract

Contributing to the domain of comparative public administration literature, this chapter explores the manifestation of “alternative” practices of public management in three different contexts in the “Second World” country category, specifically Turkey, Kosova, and Kazakhstan. The rationale for this research choice consists of similarities of these contexts, including challenges of postconflict state formation, Muslim-majority societies and debatable levels of secularism in their public administration (PA) systems through a historical lens. On a theoretical level, it attempts to draw parallels between the global-Westerns doctrines such as Weberianism and New Public Management (NPM) and non-Western paradigms of public management such as Ottoman or Islamic PA. In doing so, the study identifies certain commonalities and values, which could help to understand the behavior of non-Western public servants and future research can perhaps take on board. On a more practical level, the chapter, on the one hand, provides evidence which suggests that political elites have clearly played a key role in either secularizing or desecularizing public management systems often in the name of indigenous PA. On the other hand, it highlights the uncontestable power of politics over public management and reform trajectories prevalent not only in the “Second World” category, but also its revival in developing and developed contexts alike in recent times. More significantly, the parallels between the “Western” and “non-Western” models of governance that this chapter attempts to draw could serve as a reminder to public servants in post-Ottoman states of the importance (and certain benefits) of legacy in governance while offering lessons to be learned for “global” public servants operating through models overrun by the Western paradigm.