The Structure and Financial Dimensions of Public Administration in EU Countries

Abstract

Various traditional trends and roles of pub-lic administration can be traced across the Eu-ropean Union member states. These countries, however, are obliged to abide by common ad-ministrative and legal principles of the European administrative area. This paper focuses on the structure and differentiation of public adminis-tration in EU (28) countries, levels of local gov-ernment and internal division of administrative structures, using the ESA methodology and a comparison of expenditures made by public ad-ministration in 2003, 2009 and 2013. The f scal aspect of public administration is evaluated also through f scal decentralization (revenues, expen-ditures). Cluster analysis is used for the com-parison of selected areas of public expenditures according to the levels of public administration, showing that EU (28) countries can be divided into three clusters.The most signif cant differences in public ex-penditures according to levels of public adminis-tration were observed in EU countries in the f rst and third cluster, where f scal decentralization of expenditures constitutes the most notable differ-ence. The smallest differences in all clusters are perceived in total general government expendi-tures as % of GDP.