How do public administration reforms develop in cases of political instability? Administrative reform has always been on the agenda of governments. Ample literature discusses its necessity and the factors that are associated with both its successes and failures worldwide. Nevertheless, only a few studies discuss the impact of political instability on public administration reform. Focusing on the Israeli experience, we explore public administration reform in the context of political instability. Using content analysis and in-depth interviews, we highlight how political instability adds more costs to politicians’ cost-benefit calculations about actively promoting public administration reform, as well as how it blocks their desire to engage in mundane work when large, visible reforms have been proposed. Our findings indicate that the problems of non-governability and political instability that create the need for administrative reform also create powerful barriers to it—particularly the lack of political will.

公共行政改革在政治不稳定的情况下如何发展？行政改革一直是各国政府的议事日程。大量文献讨论了它的必要性以及与其在全球范围内的成功和失败相关的因素。然而，只有少数研究讨论了政治不稳定对公共行政改革的影响。我们以以色列的经验为重点，探讨政治不稳定背景下的公共行政改革。通过内容分析和深入访谈，我们强调政治不稳定如何增加政治家积极推动公共行政改革的成本效益计算，以及当大规模、可见的改革已经结束时，政治不稳定如何阻碍他们从事平凡工作的愿望被提议。