New public management and evaluation

In the last four decades governments and governmental bodies in Western countries have come under increasing pressure, both societal and financial in nature. The quest for efficiency, efficacy, responsiveness, flexibility and accountability of government is a dominant one. As outlined in the introductory chapter, this has given rise to numerous innovations both in public organization and in policy-making and implementation. These innovations aimed at improving government in some respects in order to accommodate ‘external’ and ‘internal’ pressures.