Book Description

This text examines the dynamics of comprehensive civil service reform in Norway, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia. Since 1985, new public management (NPM) has evolved into an administrative orthodoxy. This book challenges the globalization thesis, which maintains that NPM is spreading rapidly around the world and generating convergence between civil service systems. The text argues that administrative reforms are transformed by a complex mixture of environmental pressure, policy features, and historical and institutional contexts, which would imply divergence and organizational variance. This book looks at three forms of tranformation of NPM. The first looks at the reform process, ideas, and content. The second looks at the effects of NPM reforms on political-administrative control, organized interests, policy capacity, and governmental culture. The third focuses on the implications of NPM for reform theory and democratic ideas.