The Covid-19 pandemic as a driver of more responsive social procedures : between theory and practices in Slovenia

Babšek, Matej (author), Kovač, Polonca (author)

Social and other administrative procedures are gaining importance because of the increasing complexity of administrative relationships brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, digitalisation and other societal changes. When exercising social rights, procedural elements should be seen – both at the lever of regulation and enforcement of the rules – as factors contributing to the welfare state, the rule of law, and good administration, and not as an excuse for a bureaucratic attitude. In view of the multifunctionality of social procedures, including their casual-functional role in social relationships and their potential for a critical, value-based evaluation of the current regulation, the rationale for this study is to access the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on special administrative procedures conducted by the 16 social work centers (SWCs) in Slovenia. A special emphasis is placed on the informational calculation of social assistance payments, such as child benefits, kindergarten subsidies or state scholarships – by far the most numerous procedures involving social rights in Slovenia, with over one million cases annually. Drawing upon a normative analysis, available statistics, semi-structured interviews with SWCs managers and surveys among employees, the findings reveal that the response of SWCs to the crisis has improved. However, largely due to the lack of coordination on the part of the line ministry, the simplifications introduced mainly benefit the public administration rather than particularly vulnerable parties to the procedure. Consequently, there is a need to pay greater attention to providing the parties with adequate protection of their constitutional right and other elements of good public governance.

• Language: English
• Keywords: administrative procedure, Covid-19 pandemic, digitalisation, good governance, rule of law, Slovenia, social rights
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FU - Faculty of Administration
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: Str. 1-32
• Numbering: Vol. 16, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-146897
• UDC: 35(497.4):004:342:616-036.21
• ISSN on article: 1338-4309
• DOI: 10.2478/nispa-2023-0001
• COBISS.SI-ID: 155766275
• Publication date in RUL: 17.07.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: NISPAcee journal of public administration and policy
• Shortened title: NISPAcee j. publi. adm. policy
• Publisher: Sciendo, NISPAcee, GIPA
• ISSN: 1338-4309
• COBISS.SI-ID: 520037913

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: upravni postopki, epidemija covid-19, digitalizacija, dobro upravljanje, vladavina prava, Slovenija, socialne pravice

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P5-0093
• Name: Razvoj sistema učinkovite in uspešne javne uprave