Conclusions

From the late 1970s on, Western bureaucracies have been confronted with clamours for change and reform, as politicians were looking for a leaner and more effective administration. Under the heading of New Public Management a range of apparently universal business techniques were applied to public sector organizations. In this volume, a number of these reforms have been discussed, including the creation of executive agencies, public-private partnerships, personnel reforms and the use of performance measurement instruments. This served two purposes. We wanted (i) to show the range and diversity in the actual implementation of specific NPM techniques in a number of (continental) European countries and (ii) to offer an explanation for differences and adaptations of the predominantly Anglo-American ideas of NPM in continental European countries. Now the time has come to sum up our findings.

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