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Agencification was one of the main pillars of the New Public Management reforms in Europe in the 1980s and 1990s. The strong increase in the number of agencies and the extension of their autonomy (especially with regard to independent regulatory agencies) significantly changed the organizational architecture of governments. However, the review of organizational reforms implemented over the past two decades in European administrative systems demonstrates a trend towards the rationalization and consolidation of the agency landscape. This article provides insight into major forms and patterns of consolidation, including comprehensive, cross-sectoral agency rationalization initiatives and more selective reforms regarding specific policy areas or types of government functions. It also explores the background of the consolidation reforms, confirming that economic pressures affecting governments in the era of austerity played a crucial role in redefining the position of agencies in governments' organizational set-up.Points for practitionersAgencies remain the main vehicle for policy implementation across Europe but the trend towards de-agencification emerged in the decade of the 2010s, represented by both comprehensive, cross-sectoral initiatives reducing the agency stock, and consolidations in specific policy areas or covering agencies of specific types. De-agencification was triggered by the 2008 global financial crisis that increased the pressure on the reduction of administrative expenditure. To a lesser extent, it was a reaction to the adverse effects of agencification, such as coordination and steering problems, or the ambiguous impact of agencification on the efficiency of the public administration.

The steady increase in public sector spending on the purchase of goods and services in public procurement is more noticeable. The aim of this article is to present the possibility of optimization of the public logistic and to show its potential areas of application. The examples of the application of public logistics presented in this paper show its great importance and justify its rapid growth. The development of the public logistics is a consequence of the increase in range of public duties realized by local authorities and the growth private sector involvement in this sphere of activity.

AbstractHow can interdepartmental coordination in large political‐administrative systems be organized? This question has vexed scholars and practitioners for more than 100 years. Two perspectives—one that features hierarchical direction and one hallmarked by horizontal negotiation—dominate the scholarly debate. However, we know surprisingly little about how interdepartmental coordination is handled in practice. This article presents an empirical study in an entire political‐administrative system, the EU Commission, and examines whether interdepartmental coordination is hierarchical or negotiated. Our study is based on almost 6,000 cases and original measures of departmental policy expertise derived from quantitative text analysis. Our results indicate that interdepartmental coordination is primarily driven by concerns of administrative turfs and thus lend support to the negotiated coordination perspective.