Comparison of the Themes in Scientific Journals Dealing with Public Administration

Autorica je u radu na temelju analize prevladavajuće teme u znanstvenim radovima vodećih nacionalnih časopisa o javnoj upravi pokušala prikazati, a potom i usporediti upravne sustave Hrvatske, SAD-a, Kanade, Indije i Australije. Uvidom u tematsku strukturu časopisa pokušala je utvrditi javlja li se javna uprava u različitim državama kao sasvim različiti fenomen ili je riječ o jednakom fenomenu čija su specifična obilježja samo produkt različitih okolišnih (ekonomskih, socijalnih, povijesnih, geografskih, kulturnih, itd.) čimbenika u kojima su se ti upravni sustavi razvijali i koja su takva da omogućuju razmjenu najboljih ideja i praksi i daljnji razvoj upravnih sustava prema zajedničkom modelu. U radu se najprije opisuje istraživanje sadržaja znanstvenih časopisa o javnoj upravi kao metoda istraživanja u upravnoj znanosti. Autorica zatim izlaže tijek svog istraživanja i dobivene rezultate te konačno tumači rezultate dobivene istraživanjem.The paper analyses the thematic structure of scientific papers published in an American, an Australian, an Indian, a Canadian, and a Croatian journal dealing with public administration in the period 1999–2009. Based on this analysis, the administrative systems of the countries of origin are outlined and compared. The initial thesis is that the administrative systems of different countries differ because of various environmental conditions in which they have developed, but these differences are not so huge as to suggest that public administration in different countries is a completely different phenomenon. On the contrary, due to globalisation, uniqueness and divergence of various administrative systems are tending to withdraw, making room for the exchange of ideas and best practices, and to the development of national administrative systems according to a common model. The paper describes the analysis of themes as one of the research methods in administrative science and outlines some of the papers in which this method has been used. The author has analysed the results for each country individually, proceeding with an aggregate overview of thematic structures and administrative systems of the respective countries. The thematic structure of scientific papers as a copy of the studied administrative systems has shown that the USA and Australia are ideologically oriented towards economic values, as the countries of pragmatic culture, while Canada is oriented towards economic and traditional values. India can be considered to use its potentials for further development of the country, while Croatia is a country that is reforming its administrative system in accordance with democratic principles and other traditional values of the European continent. nevertheless, the research has shown that public administration core is the same in each of the analysed countries and that they are moving towards common understanding of what is an optimal organisation of public administration