Transcending New Public Management

Tom Christensen is from the University of Oslo and Per Lægreid is from the University of Bergen, both in Norway.

• Contents: Preface; Introduction - theoretical approach and research questions, Tom Christensen and Per Lægreid; Still fragmented government or reassertion of the centre?, Tom Christensen, Amund Lie and Per Lægreid; Reform design and performance in Australia and New Zealand, John Halligan; Types of state organisations: arguments, doctrines and changes beyond new public management, Paul G. Roness; Convergence and standardization in telecommunications regulation: trajectories of change and reform in the Asian Pacific regulatory state, Martin Painter; Organizing immigration - a comparison of New Zealand and Norway , Tom Christensen, Per Lægreid and Richard Norman; Central banking reform across the world: only by night are all cats grey, Martin Marcussen; Quests for transparency: signs of a new institutional era in the health care field, Maria Blomgren and Kirstin Sahlin-Andersson; Public-private partnerships: a comparative perspective on Victoria and Denmark, Carsten Greve and Graeme Hodge; (The difficult art of) outsourcing welfare services: experiences from Sweden and New Zealand, Anders Forssell and Lars Norén; New public management and the ghost of Max Weber: exorcised or still haunting?, Robert Gregory; Bibliography; Index.

'... authors use a broad "transformative" perspective to demonstrate both the significant effects that the reforms have had on public management and the ways in which they have been shaped by national administrative cultures and traditions and by political context. Anyone interested in understanding the tremendous impact that the market-inspired NPM reforms have had on public management, the problems and complex transformations associated with these reforms, and recent efforts to promote greater coherence and coordination in government, will find the book invaluable.' Joel Aberbach, Distinguished Professor, University College Los Angeles, USA '... an important contribution to the literature on administrative reform. It examines the consequences of New Public Management in a number of societies and the continuing reforms, especially those designed to improve coordination and coherence in the public sector. The transformative perspective that is central to the analysis, as well as the central role of comparative analysis distinguishes this manuscript from others and makes it essential reading for students of reform in the public sector.' B. Guy Peters, Maurice Falk Professor, University of Pittsburgh, USA