Abstract
The Trans-European Dialogue in 2013 was dedicated to the revisiting of the research undertaken by György Hajnal in 2003 (Hajnal, 2003) on public administration education in Europe. As part of the preparations to the conference, Hajnal also revisited his research after 10 years. The findings presented on the conference offer a theoretical framework to analyze the Hungarian case of public administration education. The claim is that the Hungarian public administration culture is still part of the “legalistic” model within the discipline. This article provides an analysis on the current institutional settings of public administrative education and also a content analysis on the curriculum of BA and MA courses in order to determine if Hajnal’s 2013 findings are still valid. In order to verify Hajnal’s 2013 findings, the article examines the contents of the current public administration programs and also formulates the latest steps for further development. In addition, the article offers an outline on being “legalistic” in terms of public administration education. Although the article states that the basic framework of public administration education – as a major driver of public administration culture – is still dominantly legalistic. It also introduces the ways in which the new public administration education system have tried to change the content of its degree programs and how it has tried to have an impact on the entire public administrative system to move from procedural orientation to a more solution-oriented mindset.
Keywords
Theoretical background: Revisiting Hajnal’s findings after 10 years
The 6th Trans-European Dialogue (TED) conference in Potsdam, jointly organized by IIAS-EGPA (International Institute of Administrative Sciences – European Group of Public Administration) and NISPA CEE (Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe), was partly dedicated to revisiting György Hajnal’s findings after a 10-year period. Both his 2003 study and the 2013 one – among other important findings on clusters in Public Administration (PA) education – enhanced that Hungarian PA education belongs to the “legalistic” cluster within Europe. The 2013 research – delivered by Hajnal at TED 6 – adds to this finding that the situation has remained the same throughout the past 10 years. According to Hajnal (Hajnal, 2013), Hungary and Germany forming the “legalistic” cluster did not change their orientation regarding PA education, while other countries in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region like Slovakia, Slovenia or Romania, which belong to other PA education clusters with either policy or management orientation, slightly changed the content of their PA education according to international trends.
The analysis begins with a brief institutional history. This might not be important in a country like Germany where a couple of dozen institutions provide PA education. Since the institutional composition of Hungarian PA education is rather monolithic, it has a high significance regarding what happens inside the incumbent institution. To formulate it in a different way: the institutional changes affecting an institution that has a national monopoly are, per se substantial changes within the realm of PA education.
What is “legalistic” PA?
According to my understanding, a legalistic approach in itself is not inferior to a more political or to a more managerial approach in PA education. Especially in a country where the communist dictatorship imprinted the fear from the reigning iniuria into the hearts and minds of the people, being “legalistic” appears to be positive. It has a theoretical importance to detach “legalistic” PA culture from “legalistic” PA education. In practice, these notions are deeply interwoven as students move from education to PA practice and practitioners tend to take part in PA education. In the following, I analyze the concept of law in PA practice in Hungary and later on I provide an analysis on being “legalistic” in PA education.
The concept on the function of law within PA
Hungarian PA theory is widely divided on the definition of law and on the definition of PA. According to this article however, the theoretical nuances have no significance. What I intend to focus on is the public sentiment of the civil service of what the notions of law and PA are. Without empirical research within the civil service, it can be reasonably assumed that the Basic PA coursebook 2 has the most significant impact on the general perception of law and PA within the civil service. The definition of the notion of law is the following: Law: Collection of obligatory norms, regarding persons and legal subjects, created or acknowledged by the state, can – in the last resort – be enforced by the state. 3
Without any further lengthy argument, this concept of law is far from the Roman law concept of “ius est ars boni et aequi” 4 that relates to the seamless operations of the society (not only the state machinery). The notion of law taught at Hungarian law schools is entirely different though. According to this definition, law and lawyers ought to contribute to avoiding conflicts or if they –as natural – occur, they ought to contribute to resolving conflicts in a sustainable, ethical and lawful manner.
The classic heritage of law offers another observation regarding a stiff PA system that has a mindset of focusing on applying obligatory norms, even at a social, moral or political cost: “Summum ius, summa iniuria”. 5 Such rigidity of the application of law creates a tension between state and society in the long run, which is powerfully analyzed by András Sajó (Sajó, 2008). As a consequence, PA legal ethics tend to become “legalistic” too (Allegretti, 2001: 455).
If we contrast the narrow definition of law with the wide concept of law, it can be seen that the problem solving capacity, flexibility and arbitrary – that are supposed to be attributes of law – are excluded from the PA interpretation of law and implicitly transferred to the realm legislation. To put it in a simple way: “Whatever is the law, we apply it. In case of any problems, the legislator should come up with a solution” – could an imaginary civil servant say.
I am not arguing that a single definition in the Basic PA course book could change the mindset of tens of thousands of civil servants. I rather argue that the definition is a tangible sign on the public sentiment of law within PA.
The origins of the current concept of law within PA
Why is it so that the concept of law taught at law schools (that law is one of the techniques of ensuring “business as usual” for the entire society) and the concept of law promoted in the PA (that law is the transmitter of state authority) are so different?
Meyer-Sahling and Yesilkagit offer an intellectual framework on understanding why administrative legacy has a different impact on contemporary PA in Central and Eastern Europe than in Western Europe (Meyer-Sahling and Yesilkagit, 2011). They argue that PA traditions are deeply affected by the communist legacy in the CEE region. In terms of “legalism”, this might appear a contradiction of terms. But the contradiction can be explained if we understand that the communist legacy concluded in an overdrive of legalism as a kind of overcompensation by the new, democratic regime. It was a general consent of the regime change that law was a guarantee of democracy. The overall constitutional settings of the regime change were built on the concept of the powerful legislator. The Constitution of the regime change (that was formally still the 1949 Constitution) created an exceptionally powerful Parliament in order to increase legitimacy of the new regime (Barthel, 1989). According to the Constitution, whatever matters of life have been regulated by law, later on these matters automatically became the regulatory competences of the Parliament unless the legislator himself regulated it differently.
Communist legacy can be also traced in shifting blame and shifting responsibility being systemic elements of PA. If overspecified, detailed norms determine every single action of the civil service, no individual or institutional responsibility can be asserted within the PA. With overregulation, responsibility and blame are automatically shifted onto the legislator. The relationship between politics and PA also bears a trace of communist legacy: distrust. The legislative power – dominated by politics – tended to be distrustful toward civil service in the past two decades, partly by accusing PA of being unable to tackle the challenges of the new era while being too loyal to its own communist legacy.
Overspecified legislation serving political purposes
Meyer-Sahling and Yesilkagit (2011) point out that PA reforms are not that long lasting and that PA reform model changes are more frequent in the CEE region than in Western Europe. As a consequence, reforms tend to have an extensive impact on each other. Applying this statement to the concept of law within PA it can be stated that PA-law relationship is also influenced by an even deeper layer of legacy: the legal tradition of the Monarchy of Austria–Hungary. In terms of the relationship between law and PA, the content of this tradition is that practicing PA is nothing else than applying law (certain institutional stages of this tradition are mentioned later in detail). The legal culture of the Monarchy was later partly used and partly distorted by the communist regime. It might not be trivial to compare the half-feudalistic Austria–Hungary with the communist regime of Hungary, but the comparison still has relevance regarding the concept of law. The commonality between the two concepts is that law in both cases is a textual, normative phrasing of the will of state authority (imperative function). Law in Austria–Hungary was richer since the 19th century market capitalism had to be supported by law, while communist law abandoned these functions and further enhanced the imperative function of law.
Besides the arguments that stem from the path, dependence theory regarding the specialties of the CEE region the second half of the 2000s raised a different approach regarding the relationship of PA and politics that has an effect on the concept of law in PA as well. Meyer-Sahling (2006) pointed out that increasing politicization of PA caused an institutional and human resources (HR) instability in Hungarian PA. After the first decade of the regime change, the imperative aspect of law (predominantly public law) gained a new function. This was rather to be a powerful tool of democratic political influence than to be a vehicle of homogenous state authority of the dictatorship. As PA getting gradually more politicized, the changeable political influence found two ways of applying its primacy on PA. The obvious way was to politicize PA leadership positions and the other way was through legislation. Owing to its legislative needs, the legislator increased the amount of newly released legal material significantly. The increase can be partly explained by European Union (EU) requirements and generally increasing complexity of regulatory needs, but a significant portion of explanation can be found in the change of politics–PA relationship that was scientifically elaborated by Meyer-Sahling (2006).
The generational aspect
The corpus of Hungarian law has undergone serious changes since 1990. The first wave of the changes were conducted by lawyers who graduated before 1990. Owing to the inevitable generational change, young civil servants having a post-regime-change law degree began to dominate legal concepts within the central public service from 2000s. This trend reached its peak by 2011 in the central civil service – where the decisive portion of law is prepared. Over 20% of civil servants within the central (Ministerial) PA belonged to the 31–35 age group in 2011. It appears that as a generational element of professional culture, regulation appears a primary policy element for the young generation of central public administrators.
The generation change is supposed to have an impact on the concept of law within PA as well. For the time being this is difficult to detect. Based on the quantity of newly released laws per annum, it appears that the younger generation did not change the perception on law within the central PA.
In Figure 1, the proportion of young lawyers is indicated according to their ministry. It can be seen that there is a significant generation change regarding the representation of law in PA. In most of the ministries, lawyers under 35 outnumber those who are above this age.
Comparing proportion of lawyers under and above 35 years (Source: KSZSZR Government Database, 2012).
It is interesting to observe that the proportion of lawyers (and implicitly young lawyers) is the lowest in the Prime Minister’s Office. This leads to the conclusion that the powerhouse of policy decisions does not look at lawyers as being able to sufficiently contribute to formulating policies.
More lawyers produce more law
The result of the regulation efforts of the young civil servants having a law degree is a more detailed law in a significantly higher quantity. From 1990 to 2010, the quantity of annual releases of new law was multiplied by 2.5 and the internal complication of law was also multiplied by 2.5 (Gellén, 2012).
The overall trend of the figure of newly released laws (excluding laws issued by non-governmental organs like Central Bank Decrees) is the following throughout the last 22 years (Figure 2).
Gross quantity of new laws issued per annum (Acts, government decrees, ministerial decrees).
The dynamic increase of the quantity of law leaves less territory for discretion. Discretion however is an elementary compound of being actively able to serve the public “…when equity is reduced to rules, reform is needed. Rules will not suffice. Rules must be supplemented with discretion”. (Davis, 1969: 19)
The concept of the role of PA
Using the Basic PA coursebook’s definition on what PA is, we find that “Public administration is an activity of the state’s executive power in order to manage public matters and organizing public services – separated from politics – that has a distinct institutional system, is under the rule of law and possesses state authority”. 6
Based on the logic that the definition within the Basic PA coursebook has the highest impact on the mindset of civil service, we can assume that this definition is more beneficial to the public than the coursebook concept of law – though statist– this concept takes into account solving ever-changing public matters and challenges (Waldo, 1968).
In this aspect, the concept of the role of PA taught in compulsory civil service professional trainings has the element of “getting things done”, while the definition of law refers more to a neutral transmitter of state authority to society.
Brief institutional history of PA education in Hungary
In the remaining part of the article we analyze the institutional settings of PA education in Hungary, with special focus on the element of law as an academic discipline within the PA curriculum of the institution that has a de facto monopoly on PA education.
Historical heritage: roots of a de facto monopoly
Traditionally legal education and public administrative education have been closely interwoven in Hungary. In 1883 (during the Monarchy of Austria–Hungary) a law was issued that declared that the eligibility for higher positions in state administration was tied to having a law degree. In order to meet the increasing personnel needs of the local administrations, an act was issued in 1900 that allowed the local notaries to be employed with having only a notary training. In 1929 the diplomas of economics received equal state recognition as diplomas of law, later in 1934 university level PA and economics education was established. In 1952 – in order to provide mid-cadres for the regime – Academies of the Soviets (Soviets meaning municipal and county administrations) were established with 5-month, later 10-month, programs. From this stage – throughout a number of institutional changes – a single Academy (equal to a Hochschule) 7 of the Soviets was created out of the remaining three such institutions. The Academy of Public Administration (Hochschule für Verwaltung) was established in 1977. This was integrated into the Budapest University of Economics and Public Administration (today’s Corvinus University) as a Faculty of Public Administration in 2000. Recently, in 2011, this Faculty was moved into the National University of Public Service (NUPS), where it became a Faculty of PA, besides the Faculty of Law Enforcement (former Police Academy, ‘Hochschule’) and the Faculty of Defense (former University of Defense).
Creating a national university of public service
Creating a university that is based on the concept of the unity of public service appears to be a unique approach, since the university comprises the education of general PA, law enforcement (policing) and military officer education. In a sense it is unique, but from the polity perspective, it has a rationale. Primarily, Hungarian military is very small compared with other NATO armies, for instance only 59 military officers graduated in 2008. Such modest demand by no means requires an entire university (although the former military university used to have a vast non-military portfolio). Regarding the HR needs of the police, Hungarian law enforcement always had the ambition of having a university level education facility; finally, the opportunity has been given within NUPS. From the polity point of view, civilian PA education is also a beneficiary of the fusion, since its financing appears to be more secure through the budgets of three ministries (Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Interior) in times of a fiscal situation that deeply affects public university expenditures that are financed from the education budget.
As a general remark regarding the content of the three areas of public service, it can be stated that in many fields they came closer to each other than they were earlier: peace keeping missions, emergency situations, logistics, IT defense, social stability and many other fields could be mentioned where the three academic fields can be in synergy with each other.
NUPS itself has a decisive role in forming PA education in Hungary. Besides having a de facto monopoly in university programs in PA, it has an exclusive role in compulsory civil service training. According to a new law (discussed later on in detail) issued in 2011, NUPS became in charge of civil service training, replacing a government agency that had this task previously. NUPS recognized that it has to distinguish its PA programs from other similar programs in the country that are provided mostly by universities of law. Thus NUPS began to promote general PA as an academic discipline. It might appear strange but – owing to the strongly legalistic legacy – the National Accreditation Committee did not have category for general PA. Obtaining recognition of a not-entirely-legalistic doctoral program in PA required first to convince the Accreditation Committee (dominated by lawyers) that PA as a discipline is different from the traditional, legalistic image of PA. Owing to considerable efforts, the step was made, the accreditation process of a non-legalistic PA doctorate school succeeded. Until 2013 there used to be no doctoral school in general PA in Hungary. Potential PhD aspirants in PA had to enter doctoral schools in either law or political science or try one of the interdisciplinary doctoral schools. It appears that in NUPS, being such a powerful institution, general PA as an academic discipline gained a powerful promoter in the domestic realm of polity. NUPS is interested in positioning general PA as a non-legalistic discipline in order to distinguish itself from traditional law schools that have activities in PA as a legal discipline.
Conclusions of institutional history
There are a few relevant conclusions that can be drawn based on this brief historic outline. First, the connection between the lawyer profession and civil service can be described as a delicate combination of contention and cooperation. PA graduates often continue their studies at a law faculty;, faculty of law teachers often teach at PA courses in order to have a secondary revenue.
Second, the historical overview suggests an interpretation that civil service education (PA profession) always had an ambition to receive university-level recognition. This was offered as being part of the University of Economics (now Corvinus), but this cohabitation could not become a real symbiosis. Since the legalistic content of PA education was not changed, the relatively small PA Faculty became gradually isolated within a vast, self-confident, market-oriented University of Economics.
Legalistic PA education: What does it mean?
The importance of NUPS
Although NUPS is the primary promoter of non-legalistic general PA in Hungary (launching a doctoral school is the first tangible step), for the time being NUPS cannot entirely detach itself from its heritage. Changing the curriculum will still require a lot of effort. The curricula provided by NUPS are presented through a brief content overview in order to illustrate the deep connection between general PA education and law.
In order to underpin why we analyze the content of the PA programs of the National University of Public Services in a detailed form, we indicate the current figures of general PA programs on BA level.
General PA is taught at the following institutions with the indicated capacity for the academic year beginning in September, 2013. 8
National University of Public Services: 820 vacancies.
University of Debrecen, Faculty of Law: 25 vacancies.
University of Miskolc, Faculty of Law: 15 vacancies.
West Hungarian University, PA and Geo-information technology: 5 vacancies.
Péter Pázmány Catholic University, Faculty of Law: 15 vacancies.
This list covers only general PA programs. There are other programs that also have a relevance in public service or public education training, such as public sector economics or public policy. These programs are also relatively small ones and comparison is also difficult with clear profile PA programs, therefore they are not indicated here. It can be seen that NUPS PA programs are dominant; that NUPS has a de facto monopoly owing to a heritage of institutional history. It can also be seen that three university faculties of law offer general PA programs, though with relatively low numbers of vacancies.
The content of PA education as the national champion
Regarding NUPS as a national champion of PA education, the figures of PA degrees issued can be seen in Table 1. The current total number of students at the Faculty of PA at NUPS: 2291 students including 155 non-degree students, but excluding the participants of the professional trainings.
Degrees issued at NUPS in PA.
If we compare the 2011 and 2012 figures with the number of vacancies advertised on the official website of the university admissions (www.felvi.hu) for 2013, a dynamic increase can be seen in terms of student headcounts on PA courses. This study does not have the capacity for a sociological research on the change of students’ choices regarding PA, nevertheless, as a vague hypothesis it can be assumed that the economic crisis might have had an impact of an increasing demand for a public sector career in certain groups of society.
Curriculum content at NUPS
In the following I briefly analyze the content of currently ongoing PA programs at NUPS.
Within the PA curriculums, there are two main kinds of courses: obligatory and non-obligatory ones. At the beginning of every semester, a wide variety of non-obligatory courses are advertised and the students can select a composition of their courses with the condition of collecting the necessary credits.
Obligatory courses on the current two BA and two MA programs altogether provide for 250 courses. If we exclude IT and language courses, we get 230 courses, from which categories indicated in Table 2 can be formed.
Categories of obligatory courses in PA programs at NUPS.
Among non-obligatory courses, the composition of the courses is different. Excluding language and IT courses, we get a total Figure of 170. The composition of this is shown in Table 3.
Categories of non-obligatory courses in PA programs at NUPS.
Law: includes theory of law, law in force, practical skills regarding law, EU and international law.
Political science: includes theory of political science, history of politics, public policy and political communication.
Economics and management: include public sector economics and general economics, public and corporate management, finance, project management, etc.
Other humanities: include social science, theory and practice of communications, psychology and culture.
As a conclusion to this brief content analysis of the PA education institution in Hungary, which is the far most influential one regarding current PA, it can be found that law as a discipline is still dominant among obligatory courses and is dominant – but not overwhelmingly – among non-obligatory courses (Hajnal’s 2013 findings can be verified). Since non-obligatory courses are subjects of students’ choice, there is a certain competition among the courses offered. Since “political science” and “other humanities” are significantly more highly represented among non-obligatory courses than among obligatory ones, it can be assumed that student interest specifies “law” and “economics and management” to be “hard”, while “political science” and “other humanities” to be “soft”.
Professional training
Until 2011, civil service professional training and the related mandatory examinations were coordinated by a government agency. By the Act No. CXCIX of 2011, the professional training agency was integrated into the newly established NUPS. The trainings regulated by the law contain the PA basic exam and the PA advanced exam (Fachprüfung). The PA basic exam has to be taken by each civil servant within one year after entering the civil service. It is a condition to pass the PA advanced exam in order to be promoted to “counselor” grade, which is a significant career step after a few years at the civil service. The content of the PA basic exam and the content of the PA advanced exam are litmus tests on what the official view is on the necessary skills at the civil service. The brief content analysis of PA professional training – owing to the recent institutional changes – mirrors the image of what the decision makers in charge of the curriculum have in mind regarding what professional attributes Hungarian PA should have. This observation offers a reference to Hajnal’s 2013 finding, which stated that Hungary’s position remained changeless in the “legalistic cluster”.
Before the content analysis of the professional training delivered by NUPS, it is important to note the exceptions provided by the Act under the main rule of compulsory tests. Legal exception is granted to those lawyers who have a Bar exam and to those civil servants of any profession who have a PhD degree on a theme that is acknowledged to be entirely dedicated to a PA theme. 9 This might appear to be strange to Western observers, since this regulation implicitly assumes a kind of similarity between a Bar exam and a PhD in PA. This can lead to a dilemma: either law (as an academic discipline) is viewed as having much in common with PA or PA is viewed as entirely legalistic (with more contrast: PA part of law or law part of PA?). At the same time lawyers who do not have a Bar exam but who do have a non-PA law PhD (e.g. a PhD in civil law or tax law) are subjects of the compulsory test.
The currently available course book for the basic PA exam contains the main chapters as listed in Table 4. The PA advanced exam coursebook contains the main chapters as listed in Table 5.
Analyzing the content of the basic PA exam coursebook.
Analyzing the content of the advanced PA exam coursebook.
The result of the brief analysis can be summarized in the following by aggregating the percentages:
Basic PA exam – Law: 55%, PA: 45%
Advanced PA exam – Law: 46% PA: 54%
This method is only appropriate to compare the weight of the disciplines within the curriculum, the figures do not indicate any judgment on the internal values of the learning material.
As a concluding remark it can be stated that the content of professional training is deeply influenced by law. In the basic PA exam curriculum I find a dominantly legalistic interpretation of PA. Regarding the advanced PA exam we can enhance that legalistic content is dominant (see Hajnal’s 2013 findings), however, regarding the second argument borrowed from the law on exceptions under compulsory exam, we cannot verify that a PA advanced exam in its content is replaceable by a Bar exam.
The content of professional training has a major impact on the concept of what civil servants think of their own profession, the size of this impact is indicated by the following figures: in 2012 the PA basic exam was passed by 2868 civil servants; while the PA advanced exam was passed by 1315 civil servants.
The content of “legalism” in a “legalistic” PA culture
There might be a threat that the legalistic approach dominating PA education culture would harm critical analysis and creative synthesis in PA. This argument is formulated similarly regarding the Romanian case: “The ’Law’ was often considered as being the only instrument to promote change in administration, and the lack of concern for the implementation stage of the policy process, not to mention the lack of use of the framework of the policy process in itself, led to a maintaining of rigid structures, prepared in a very small extent to work within the coordinates of efficiency and effectiveness” (Hintea et al., 2006: 42.) This, in the long run, harms the interests of the public and the interests of the incumbent political elite, since the efforts of solving complex societal challenges receives insufficient support from large groups of the vast civil service. According to my understanding though, it is not the “legalistic approach” itself that is incompatible with the requirements of efficiency and effectiveness. It is rather the distorted concept of law that appears as “legalism”, but with deeper analysis it turns out that this is rather a risk-evasive attitude in transmitting state authority to the society. This attitude also has its imprint on PA education: viewing law not as a problem-solving vehicle for the entire society, but as a matter of repetition. On the other hand it can be consented that policy making and policy implementation requires far more than law.
Conclusion
Law itself has undergone a serious change: civil law orientation gradually gave way to public law legislation in terms of quantities and in terms of the number of professionals of these fields within the PA in Hungary. This means that human behavior is increasingly the object of public law that has an attribute of being imperative between parties of vertical relations. This is contrary to the approach of dispositive civil law that recognizes and protects the equality of partners. Public institutions, organized to serve and to protect parties of civil law relations, require the ability of open understanding and arbitration (civil law courts and Alternative Dispute Resolutions (ADRs) for example). In the case of public administrators however, the legalistic approach is dominated by public law, while tends to lack sensitivity and soft competencies that are inexorably part of the civil law culture. The content of being “legalistic” is not purely a trust in legal institutions or in the achievements of the rule of law, it is rather a naïve Rechtsstaat-culture. Administrative culture of this type takes law as a sheer transmitter of authoritative will to the society. This administrative culture can be called legalistic, but in content it is rather a positive law-driven system (Fisher, 2000) than a rule-of-law system that is organically embedded within the society.
EU accession and EU law even tended to intensify the request for detailed imperative legislation in areas where previously civic self-regulation was ruling (such as in household agriculture, which gave approximately one-third of the gross agricultural production of Hungary before the regime change). Legal imperativism deriving from the EUs need for legal cohesion and policy harmonization, combined with the residues of the culture of obsequious behavior inherited from the communist era, resulted in the significant retreat of critical thinking in regulation and in decision making within the PA.
The generational change of young administrators and the change in the shifting from an arbitrary civil law approach towards an imperative public law approach are interlinked. The young civil servants of the last decade, having a law degree, were trained in the dynamic and promising age of the 1990s. Since new Hungarian and foreign private institutions of this decade were in extreme need of young lawyers (or PA graduates) with knowledge of foreign languages, having the necessary knowledge of serving business, very few who had any affiliation with civil law chose public service as a career. Thus, the approach of law represented in central civil service became radically unbalanced to public lawyers.
“Legalistic” in PA education appears to be a notion to be further examined. “Legalistic” in my point of view reflects a Rechtsstaat-inspired image of law, from where civil law culture is largely removed. This means that the original, balanced complexity of law is simplified to public law culture in PA education. Hajnal’s 2013 conclusions are valid nevertheless, it would be closer to truth if we called it “legalistic” PA culture and education rather “public law oriented” PA culture.