Aid-supported public service reform and capacity development in post-communist Albania

The national politico-administrative context plays a significant role in the transfer of policy from international (aid) organizations to recipient countries. In this regard, this paper attempts to identify and explain some of the intervening variables facilitating the relationship between two actors in the policy transfer process, donors and bureaucrats through the case of administrative reform and capacity development in post-communist Albania focusing on recent years. Broadly and flexibly drawing on some of the theoretical underpinnings of Dolowitz and Marsh (1996) policy transfer conceptual framework as well as the Europeanization theory, the paper seeks to provide a greater understanding of the respective roles of those actors and the dynamics of their interaction. Thus, through an analysis of the national political and bureaucratic context, reasons for non-transfer, i.e. perceived failure of administrative reform are presented in light of the politics of EU accession and conditionality mechanisms used to incentive the process.