This book takes stock of the past two decades of public sector modernisation in OECD countries. These years have witnessed an influx of new ideas and initiatives but how have these new ideas worked in practice? This report assesses failures and successes and identifies the challenges ahead. It examines certain selected key public management policy levers of reform such as:

• Making government more responsive, transparent and accessible,
• Instilling a performance approache in the public sector,
• Changing accountability and control systems,
• Facilitating reallocation and restructuring,
• Organising and motivating public servants, and
• Integrating a market approach.

This report includes comparable data and tables comparing systems across countries.  It aims to help policy makers equip themselves for the future.

“This is a tremendously useful international overview which searches for generalisations, but in a nuanced and contextualised way. I have no hesitation in recommending it.”

--Christopher Pollitt, Professor of Public Management, Centre for Public Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam

“Modernising Government is of immense value to practitioners who want to know what countries are doing to upgrade public management, as well as to scholars who want a conceptual understanding of contemporary reform. It is a highly useful reference for countries that have embraced new public management and countries that have traditional forms of public administration.”

--Allen Schick, Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland and The Brookings Institution