Public administration, as the apparatus through which decisions are executed, has long been considered a constituent part of government activity. It consists of the civil service, the public finance department, security, the judiciary, local government, and many other elements. This descriptive definition allows us to understand how large the scope of the analysis can be when embarking upon public administration studies. Interest in the politics-administration dichotomy reached South-Eastern Europe only after the fall of the socialist regimes; yet ever since, politics and politicians have continued to define the organization and function of the administration in the region. Politicization of public administration derives from the visible and automatic synthesis of the ruling party with the state in post-communist countries. After the fall of the socialist regime in Macedonia, as in the whole region, the reform of public administration became an essential feature in regard to the consolidation of democracy and the market economy. Nevertheless, changes have been moderate, especially in practice. Reformed public administration is also one of the criteria of the European Partnership, which defines short-term and long-term priorities in preparation for integration into the European Union (EU). This paper analyzes the reasons for the slow pace of reforms in Macedonia’s public administration sector. It is organised as follows. The first part analyzes the importance of a transparent and credible public administration sector in the process of democratic consolidation in Western Balkan countries. The second part of the paper focuses on the historical background of Macedonia’s administrative development since 2001. The discussion then moves on to explore several inter-related facets of governance in Macedonia, including the weak professionalization of the civil service sector, the persistent politicization of bureaucratic agencies, the inequitable ethnic representation and power-sharing in the public sector, and lastly the extensive corruption.