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This book provides a thematic case-study analysis of the wide-ranging public sector reforms introduced in one of the states most deeply affected by the global financial crisis: the Republic of Ireland. It presents a timely and apposite examination of how a crisis can be used to overcome barriers and facilitate new reform agendas. The study draws upon unique insider access to the centre of Irish government, as well as interviews with over 60 key figures, to examine the implementation of those reforms over the 2011-16 period. The book opens with a contextual analysis of the creation of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Subsequent chapters explore the process of shrinking the Irish state, renegotiating the political-administrative bargain, expenditure reforms, administrative culture reforms, and political reforms. This rich 'in action' study of a reform agenda undertaken during a period of crisis will appeal not only to students of executive politics, cutback management and public sector reform, but also to practitioners seeking to implement administrative reforms.--

Introduction -- Public sector reform -- The senior public servant -- Apartheid -- South African public service reform -- The senior South African public servant -- Politics and administration -- South African public service : the future -- Conclusion

Conventional wisdom says that reforms that aim at improving the productivity of the public sector face opposition from public sector employees, and for this reason, tend to be poorly implemented. These claims are not backed by much hard evidence. This paper seeks to fill some of that gap by investigating why an educational reform containing explicit accountability elements is poorly implemented across Norwegian municipalities about four years after the reform has passed the parliament. The empirical analyses provide evidence that municipalities with a large share of public employees are less likely to implement the reform. The relationship seems to be causal. A reduced-form approach is applied, which prevents conclusions about the mechanisms through which the public employees exercise their influence. However, some preliminary analyses indicate that school leaders hold more negative attitudes towards the reform in municipalities with a large share of public employees, potentially indicating that regulatory capture is an issue: school leaders tend to sympathize more strongly with teachers in such environments. Adapted from the source document.

This book analyses public sector reform comprehensively in all parts of China's public sector - government bureaucracy, public service units and state-owned enterprises. It argues that reform of the public sector has become an issue of great concern to the Chinese leaders, who realize that efficient public administration is key to securing the regime's governing capacity and its future survival. The book shows how thinking about public sector reform has shifted in recent decades from a quantitative emphasis on 'small government', which involved the reduction in size of what was perceived as a.

Present day knowledge about public sector reforms in Asia is quite scattered and seldom focuses on the challenges of leadership. This edited collection seeks to address this issue by presenting country cases that reflect the great diversity of the region. Home to roughly one-third of the world's population, Asia-Pacific governments typically play leading roles in social and economic development, yet by measures of expenditures or civil servants per capita, most are among the smaller ones in the world. These regimes include democracies, one-party states and unstable systems; there is a broad range of cultural legacies including Confucian, Buddhist, and Western, and vastly different levels of economic development; the region includes some of the very least corrupt countries and those with high corruption levels; it includes the world's most populous country, as well as some of the smallest. Public sector reforms are very relevant to these countries and their leaders. In Asia, a strong government is invaluable and public sector reforms are relevant to helping modern states meet their goals and performance. This collection explores what is known about these reforms with an eye towards helping leaders responsible for reforms. Clearly, there is very large variation; some Asia-Pacific countries are leading in public sector reforms, while others are not, and this book also seeks to further our understanding what leaders might need to do to be successful.

1. Globalization and public sector reform in China / Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard -- 2. Looking west : the impact of western ideas on public sector reform policies in China / John P. Burns -- 3. Transitional meritocracy? Institutions and practices of personnel management in state-building in contemporary China / Zhengxu Wang and Dragan Pavlicevic -- 4. Digital monitoring and public administrative reform in China / Jesper Schlæger -- 5. Public sector reform in China : who is losing out? / Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard and Chen Gang -- 6. Health sector reforms in contemporary China : a political perspective / Daniele Brombal -- 7. China's centrally managed state-owned enterprises : dilemma and reform / Huang Yanjie and Zheng Yongnian -- 8. Creating corporate groups to strengthen China's state-owned enterprises / Jean C. Oi and Zhang Xiaowen -- 9. China's bureaucratic capitalism : creating the corporate steel sector / Andrew G. Walder -- 10. Public sector units in India and China : inefficient producers or creators of crucial knowledge assets? / Jayan Jose Thomas -- 11. Public sector reforms and political discourse in India and China / Manoranjan Mohanty.

Brogan reviews 'Taking Stock: Assessing Public Sector Reforms' edited by B. Guy Peters and Donald J. Savoie.

In the last two decades governments have invested a great deal of time, money, and political capital in reforms to make the public sector more efficient. They have, however, invested little in evaluating the effectiveness of their efforts, accepting many of the reforms because of a belief in a particular approach to governing or an ideological commitment on the part of politicians. This collection of essays "takes stock" of these reform measures and their impact on public administration.

Concentrating on ways of describing and measuring organizational networks as a form of social capital, and how it is affected by changes in public-sector procedures, this article advocates a particular approach to the evaluation of public-sector reforms. The authors report on an empirical investigation conducted in the Netherlands, in which they monitored relationships between social capital and government reforms and used network methodology. Social networks—the 'social capital' of the organization— greatly contribute to the productivity of individual employees as well as organizations. It is argued that well-intentioned reorganizations or reforms may well turn formerly existing social capital into 'sour' capital, and lead to a consequent deterioration in efficiency, effectiveness and customer satisfaction.

"In the last tow decades governments have invested a great deal of time, money, and political capital in reforms to make the public sector more efficient. They have, however, invested little in evaluating the effectiveness of their efforts, accepting many of the reforms because of a belief in a particular approach to governing or an ideological commitment on the part of politicians. This collection of essays "takes stock" of these reform measures and their impact on public administration."--Jacket.