Patterns of government organization and administration traditions in Southern Europe

This paper focuses on the way central government and public administration are organized in four South European countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) today, in the light of recent developments in the first decade of the 21^st century and the older historical legacies in these countries. The paper discusses the role of the state and the status of civil service in society, the degree of politicization of the civil service, the extent of administrative decentralization and the way state and society interact in policy making. It then moves to examine common trends in administrative reform, which may serve as indications of convergence or divergence among the four countries. Such indications appear at the programmatic level and stem from the widespread patterns of diffusing managerialism and market-oriented reforms into public administration and as well as from the on-going transition from government to governance. The paper tries to assess to what extent the four states have modified their government organization and public administration, succumbing to reform pressures.