Abstract
The goal of this paper is to assess the role of “national curricula” (national education standards) determining the contents of public-administration (PA) education. To achieve our goal we deliver five case studies describing relevant information about the situation in the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia, all with different approaches how to apply national PA curricula. In the final part we try to evaluate the pros and cons of “national curricula” from the point of view of the development of PA education. Our research documents that extremes (no regulation and too strict regulation) do not deliver in less developed countries; the right path for such conditions should be somewhere in between - indicative national curricula and also indicative course contents should be available - something that seems to be achieved in Romania somehow.