Observations on the State of Comparative Administration Research in Europe — Rather Comparable than Comparative

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Abstract
This article tries to review public administration research undertaken in Europe since about 1980. As there is little comparative research, an attempt is made to systematize comparable research along three dimensions: organization structures (macro and micro), meta‐policymaking as it refers to budgeting and planning procedures, and research about personnel and personnel policy. It is observed that neo‐conservative reform policies in the Anglo‐American countries have had a noticeable impact on the orientation of academic research. Subsequently, these policies not only affected macro‐structures by privatization and decentralization measures, but also gave meta‐policymaking a characteristic turn, quite as it tried to induce a more managerialist role understanding in the civil service. It is argued in favor of more basic research and the institutionalization of administrative monitoring on the national level as well as stronger cooperation on the international level to advance comparative research beyond secondary analysis of the incidentally comparable.