Students’ research. The impact of recommendations provided by the Sunset commissions on Lithuanian public management policy in 1999–2016

Project idea

The main goal of the project is to improve students' scientific competences by conducting a study examining the activities of one of Lithuania's advisory bodies, the Sunset Commission, comparing the circumstances of five commissions, peculiarities, termination of their work and revealing the impact of the commission's recommendations on public governance in 1999-2016. Given that the activities of the Sunset Commissions have been poorly studied in the academic literature, the study would ensure scientific novelty in the areas of public administration and public policy. During the project, the activities of the Sunset Commissions would be examined from a perspective not yet applied in the Lithuanian academic community, assessing these entities not as semi-independent, but operating in a unified political system, constantly interacting with the public administration policy subsystem and influenced by the current political situation. This knowledge is extremely important in the Lithuanian context in order to indicate the conditions required for the implementation of the recommendations of the advisory bodies at the level of the Government and individual ministries. The results of the study are also important internationally, as they open up the possibilities of benchmarking and reveal possible combinations of factors that determine the performance of advisory structures. The results achieved during the project will undoubtedly be useful both at the academic and practical level - by revealing new knowledge about the effectiveness of advisory structures, this material will be useful for improving public governance and, at the same time, for modernizing the whole public sector.