This article investigates European Union and International Monetary Fund influence on Hungary's public sector reforms in the period 2004–2013, that is, a time period that saw the initiation of the European Union's Excessive Deficit Procedure (the whole period) and an International Monetary Fund bailout programme (2008–2010). In this case, public sector reforms became derailed from the externally proposed trajectory and took the opposite direction: instead of fostering decentralization of the state administration and deepening the Europeanization process, Hungary's restructuring of the public sector delivered centralization and a ‘power grab’ that eventually impinged on some core values of the European Union ‘constitution’ (the acquis communautaire). This study aims to explain this empirical puzzle by in-depth analysis of how external influence was exerted and became interwoven with dynamically changing domestic factors in circumstances of conditionality. The research is framed by existing policy transfer and public sector reform theories. The article argues that the Hungarian case provides evidence of the unintended consequences of European Union-driven public sector reforms.

中文翻译：

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欧盟和国际货币基金组织对匈牙利公共部门和行政改革的意外结果影响

本文调查了欧盟和国际货币基金组织在 2004 年至 2013 年期间对匈牙利公共部门改革的影响，即欧盟启动过度赤字程序（整个时期）和国际货币基金组织救助的时期计划（2008-2010 年）。在这种情况下，公共部门改革脱离了外部提议的轨道，走向了相反的方向：匈牙利的公共部门重组不是促进国家行政权力下放和深化欧洲化进程，而是带来了集权和“权力攫取”，最终侵犯了欧盟“宪法”（acquis community）的一些核心价值观。本研究旨在通过深入分析外部影响如何在有条件的情况下与动态变化的国内因素交织在一起，来解释这一实证难题。该研究以现有的政策转移和公共部门改革理论为框架。文章认为，匈牙利的案例提供了欧盟推动的公共部门改革的意外后果的证据。