Agencies

Οι αποκεντρωμένοι οργανισμοί εντάχθηκαν στην έννομη τάξη της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης (ΕΕ) με σκοπό να συμβάλλουν στην πιο εξειδικευμένη και τεχνική τομεακή ρύθμιση που απαιτούνταν σε επιμέρους πεδία πολιτικής, στα οποία ανέπτυσσε δραστηριότητα η ΕΕ, και γενικότερα να συνεισφέρουν ουσιαστικά στη βελτίωση της ικανότητας του ενωσιακού συστήματος να ανταποκριθεί στις απαιτήσεις της ευρωπαϊκής ολοκλήρωσης. Με την πάροδο των δεκαετιών έχουν πολλαπλασιαστεί και συνιστούν πλέον χαρακτηριστικό γνώρισμα του συστήματος διακυβέρνησης της ΕΕ. Η ανάθεση καθηκόντων σε οργανισμούς/αρχές που προσφέρουν τεχνική εμπειρογνωμοσύνη χαρακτηρίζεται ως μορφή «νέας διακυβέρνησης», στην οποία εμπλέκονται πολλαπλοί δρώντες 1 , και θεωρήθηκε ως μια ενδεδειγμένη λύση για να υπερκεραστεί το πρόβλημα έλλειψης εμπιστοσύνης των Ευρωπαίων πολιτών και να ενισχυθεί η αξιοπιστία της ΕΕ και των κανόνων της 2. Η Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση στηρίζεται στην τεχνική και επιστημονική εμπειρογνωμοσύνη των αποκεντρωμένων οργανισμών, προκειμένου να επιτύχει ένα αποτελεσματικότερο μοντέλο διοίκησης. Παράλληλα, μέσα από μια πιο ευέλικτη διαδικασία διακυβέρνησης, διευκολύνεται και ενισχύεται η συνεργασία μεταξύ των αρμόδιων αρχών των κρατών-μελών και των οργάνων και αρχών της ΕΕ. Οι αποκεντρωμένοι οργανισμοί ιδρύονται κατά περίπτωση προκειμένου να ανταποκριθούν σε ανάγκες που ανακύπτουν σε επιμέρους τομείς πολιτικής και δραστηριοποιούνται σε ένα ιδιαίτερα ευρύ φάσμα τομέων.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the impact of agencification on the process of administrative reorganization in Greece. It is suggested that agencies tend to create a parallel administrative
space that operates disjointly or even detached from the central bureaucracy. This hypothesis is tested and elaborated in relation to Greece’s centralist administrative tradition.
Design/methodology/approach: The analysis identifies the critical junctures of the domestic agencification pattern and seeks to explain its evolution on the basis of historical-cultural factors, rational choice explanations and country-specific variables. The methodology combines quantitative and qualitative research. Along with a review of existing literature, data were collected through semi-structured interviews and
the Registry of Entities and Agencies.
Findings: The findings show that agencification never became a coherent policy reform tool, while its outcomes were filtered by the centralist and politicized tradition of the Greek state. The effect of agencification was proved to be highly path-dependent and contingent upon the broader administrative tradition. The agencification policy does not follow a clear direction and has been shaped as a random combination of ad hoc decisions, external pressures and domestic politics.
Research limitations/implications: The paper provides some generalizations of the agencification experience. However, they do not cover all specificities and particularities of agencies and their applicability varies. Further research could consider these variations.
Originality/value: A novelty of this study is that it links the agencification effect with three key aspects of the administrative reform process, namely, decentralization, debureaucratization and depoliticization. In
addition, no single study exists regarding agencification in Greece; thus, the paper is the first to provide an overall view of the Greek arm’s length bodies.

This paper deals with the practice of paying for services provided by marketing communications agencies and whether it is possible to assess the agency's contribution to the client's business and link these results to the payment model. The way of functioning of this market is presented, and by analyzing the genesis of the relationship-model and payment conditions, the authors locate the essence of the problem in the agency-client relationship and come to the current model that puts agencies at a disadvantage and lowers the level of service quality. The main problem is that there is no consensus and clear methodology on how to assess the contribution of an agency's work to its client's business results. Unlike digital services, where it is relatively easy to measure the achieved results, in traditional advertising the situation is much more complicated and more difficult to measure. That is why the authors favor the model that has started to be applied on a smaller scale lately, and that is payment by result. The topic is of theoretical importance for researchers and of practical importance for both parties in the described process-both for clients and agencies.