This volume is the result of a three–year team effort of some twenty academics from Europe, Asia and the USA to promote a greater understanding of the complex nature of politico–administrative relations in the Post–communist states of Europe and the CIS. Thanks go first of all to the whole team of contributors, all of whom worked tirelessly to achieve this first concrete output of the NISPAcee Working Group on Politico–Administrative relations, which was established in March 1997. My special thanks go to the co–chair of the Working Group, Ms Aleksandra Rabrenovic, who was instrumental in creating the Working Group and worked with me on the design of the research protocol which formed the basis for all the country studies, and also to my colleague Lisa Smirl for going through the whole text to assess its inner logic and the quality of the English. Furthermore I wish to thank four organisations which have supported this project, either with financial or in–kind support. First and foremost thanks to Viera, Ludmila and Juraj at the NISPAcee secretariat for making the major effort to backstop the work of the group for more than three years. Second, thanks to the Local Government and Public service Reform Initiative of the Open Society Institute, Budapest, for the financial support and substantive feed–back which made it possible to produce this book. Finally, thanks to OECD/SIGMA in Paris and the UNDP Regional Support Centre in Bratislava, for providing the necessary support and encouragement to bring this first result of the working group from ideas to press.