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Department of Political Science and Public Administration

CALLIOPE SPANOU

Post: Professor

Section: Administrative Science and Public Law

Expertise: Administrative Science: Public Administration and organisation 

 

Contact information

Office telephone: 210 368 8904

Electronic mail: kspanou@pspa.uoa.gr

Office address: 6 Themistokleous Street, 5th floor, office 46

Office hours: 

 

Curriculum Vitae

Calliope Spanou, Professor of Administrative Science - Public Administration teaches at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, Department of Political Science and Public Administration since 1989. She studied Public Law and Political Science at the National and Kapodistrian University. She continued her studies in France where she obtained a Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies - DEA de Science Administrative (1983) and a Doctorat d’Etat en Science Politique - Science Administrative (1987) - Mention Très Honorable (Université de Picardie, Amiens, France). Her thesis received from the French government an honorary grant for publication. During her studies she was awarded scholarships from The Foundation of Administrative Law - M. Stassinopoulos and the Ministry of National Economy (Technical Cooperation Scholarships programme). She speaks fluently English, French and has an intermediary level of German and Italian.

From 2011-2015 Prof. Spanou was the Greek Ombudsman and served as Deputy Ombudsman from 2003 to 2011. More recently, she has served as care-taker minister of Interior during the double general elections of May and June 2023.

She has held research or teaching fellowships: at the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced studies, European University Institute, Florence, Italy (Simone Veil fellow, 2025); at the CEMOG, FU Berlin (DAAD scholar, 2024); at the Fondation de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme –Sciences-Po-(CEVIPOF), Paris – France (French government scholarship programme Directeurs d’Etude Associés, 2018);  at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Florence, Italy (Robert Schuman fellow, 2016). She has taught Paris II and Paris- Saint Quentin en Yvelines (Professeur invité 1995-96, 1996-97) and at the University of Picardy (chargée de cours 1987-88). She was academic visitor at the Centre for European Studies, Nuffield College, Oxford, U.K. (1994) and visiting professor at the Government Department LSE (1994).

For over 10 years Prof. Spanou cooperated with the OECD/-GOV-SIGMA as an expert regarding public administration reform in various countries (e.g. Albania, Ukraine, Bulgaria etc.). She has taken part in various expert committees on public administration in Greece. She has also worked as an advisor to the minister of Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization (1996-97), as an advisor of Studies at the National Centre of Public Administration (1989-91 Athens, Greece), and as an advisor at the OECD - Technical Cooperation Committee (Paris, 1988).

She is a former member of the European Board of Ombudsmen, a former President of the Hellenic Society of Political Science (2002-04), a former member of the Steering Committee of the European Group of Public Administration- IIAS (Brussels) and of the European Thematic Network for Public Administration. She has also served as a member of the Steering Committees of the Centre of Public Administration and of the National Centre for the Environment and Sustainable Development.

Her research interests cover a wide range of issues in public administration and public policy (e.g. civil service and administrative reform, citizen-administration relations, structural reforms, environmental and social policy, scientific knowledge in public policy, administration and democracy, Europeanization). She participates in European research networks and has completed three European research projects, a series of projects in Greece and more recently   participated as an expert in a JRC/European Commission project on evidence informed policymaking in Greece.

 

Recent publications (2020- )

Books and edited books

  1. (ed.) Crisis, Reform and the Way Forward in Greece. A turbulent decade, London: Routledge 2022.
  2. (επιμ.) Η Διοίκηση στο επίκεντρο. Προκλήσεις και προσδοκίες του θεσμικού περιβάλλοντος, [Public administration at the center. Challenges and expectations of the institutional environment], Αθήνα, εκδ. Παπαζήσης 2022.
  3. Ποιες μεταρρυθμίσεις; Κυβερνώντας υπό εξωτερική πίεση, [Which reforms? Governing under external pressure], Αθήνα: Εκδ. Πατάκη 2021, 351 pp.

Articles, chapters, working papers

  1.  European Commission: Joint Research Centre, Ladi, S., Spanou, C., Angelou, A., Panagiotatou., D. and Manioudis, M., Building capacity for evidence-informed policymaking in governance and public administration in a postpandemic Europe - Country analysis, policy recommendations and implementation roadmap Greece, Deligkiaouri, A. and Olajos-Szabo, A. editor(s), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/8311826, JRC141465.
  2.  “Η δημόσια διοίκηση στη Μεταπολίτευση: Το valse- hésitation του εκσυγχρονισμού” [Public administration in the ‘Metapolitefsi’: the ‘valse-hésitation’ of modernization], στο Κ. Κωστής & Σ. Ριζάς (επιμ.), Ιστορίες της Μεταπολίτευσης, Αθήνα: εκδ. Πατάκη 2025 (563-580).
  3.  “The swing of the pendulum: EU narratives in Greece in a time of crisis”, in H. Kassim & A. Schout (eds.), National Government Narratives to the EU. ‘Official stories’ of belonging, Palgrave Macmillan 2024, (225-252).
  4.  “Εξωοικονομικοί αναπτυξιακοί παράγοντες: η θεσμοποίηση της επαγγελματικής διοίκησης” [Non-economic development factors: the institutionalization of a professional administration],  στο Α. Κακριδής (επιμ.), 200 χρόνια ελληνικής οικονομίας: μεταξύ κράτους και αγοράς, Αθήνα: εκδ. Τράπεζα της Ελλάδος 2024, (173-206).
  5.  “Introduction”, in C. Spanou (ed.), Crisis, Reform and the Way Forward in Greece. A turbulent decade, London: Routledge 2022 (1-14) DOI: 10.4324/9780429202247-1
  6.  Chapter 6: “Greece and the EU. Official discourse and public opinion in the aftermath of the crisis”, In C. Spanou (ed.) Crisis, Reform and the Way Forward in Greece. A turbulent decade, London: Routledge 2022 (102-115) DOI: 10.4324/9780429202247-8.
  7.  Chapter 8: “Reversing policy legacies. The significance of administrative reforms”, in C. Spanou (ed.), Crisis, Reform and the Way Forward in Greece. A turbulent decade, London: Routledge 2022 (137-155) DOI: 10.4324/9780429202247-11.
  8.  “Η διοίκηση στο θεσμικό της περιβάλλον” {The administration and its institutional environment], στο Κ. Σπανού (επιμ.),  Η Διοίκηση στο επίκεντρο. Προκλήσεις και προσδοκίες του θεσμικού περιβάλλοντος, [Public administration at the center. Challenges and expectations of the institutional environment] Αθήνα: εκδ. Παπαζήσης 2022 (25-47).
  9.  “Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση και Δημόσια Διοίκηση.  Το τέλος της αθωότητας και η αλλαγή παραδείγματος” [The EU and Public Administration. The end of innocence and the paradigm change], στο  Α. Γ. Πασσάς, Κ. Αρβανιτόπουλος & Μ. Κοππά (επιμ.), Ελλάδα – Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση. Μια σχέση «μέσα από σαράντα κύματα» 1981-2021, Αθήνα: εκδ. Πεδίο 2021 (183-196).
  10.  (& Μ. Lampropoulou), “La política pública de transparencia en Grecia », Capítulo 5, in Pastor Albaladejo, G. (comp.)(2021), Políticas públicas de transparencia en las democracias del sur de Europa. Valencia : Tirant lo Blanch (291-369).
  11.  “Η δημιουργία του ΑΣΕΠ” [The creation of the Supreme Council for the selection of Personnel], στο Θ. Γεωργακόπουλος (επιμ.), 10 Μεταρρυθμίσεις που άλλαξαν την Ελλάδα, Αθήνα: εκδ. Διανέοσις 2021 (237-258).
  12.  “Οικοδομώντας την ικανότητα διακυβέρνησης” [Building governance capacity], στο Ευ. Βενιζέλος, Κ. Κωστής, Ευ. Χατζηβασιλείου (επιμ.), Εργαστήριον η Ελλάς. Θεσμοί και καταστάσεις που δοκιμάστηκαν στην Ελλάδα από την Παλιγγενεσία έως τις ημέρες μας, Αθήνα: εκδ. Επίκεντρο 2021 (131-141).
  13.  “Public administration”, in K. Featherstone, D.A. Sotiropoulos(eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Modern Greek Politics, Oxford University Press 2020: 170-186.
  14.  “Διαχρονικές σταθερές στη λειτουργία του πολικο-διοικητικού συστήματος και ικανότητα διακυβέρνησης” [Long-term trends in the Greek political-administrative system and governance capacity] στο Γ. Βούλγαρης, Κ. Κωστής, Σ. Ριζάς (επιμ.), Ο μεγάλος μετασχηματισμός. Κράτος και πολιτική στην Ελλάδα του 20ου αι., Αθήνα: εκδ. Πατάκης 2020 (410-437).
  15.  “Judicial controls over the bureaucracy“. In Oxford Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Oxford University Press 2020. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1729.
  16.  “Between Domestic Learning and External Coercion: Budgeting and Fiscal Management Reform in Greece”, South European Society and Politics, 25 (1) 2020, 1-26 DOI:10.1080/13608746.2020.1762372.
  17.  “External influence on structural reform: Did policy conditionality strengthen reform capacity in Greece?”, Public Policy and Administration, 35(2) 2020: 135–157 (online 2018 DOI: 10.1177/0952076718772008.