The Future of Administrative Tradition: Tradition as Ideas and Structure

Abstract

During the past three decades, legislators and political executives of a large number of developed and developing countries have initiated a series of administrative reforms. Many developed and developing countries have followed the example of reformers in Anglo-Saxon countries but not all of them have followed similar pathways. Across a large number of countries, administrative reforms of different types have been attempted, initiated and implemented at various political and administrative levels at different times. For students of comparative administration this reform variety prompts questions. When and under what conditions do national policymakers implement public sector reforms? Why do some countries’ national policymakers implement certain reforms earlier than others? Why do certain countries never implement a specific reform at all? If a similar reform is implemented in a range of countries, why does the outcome of the implementation vary across these countries? Finally, from a comparative perspective, the interesting question is not when an administrative system but how much later another administrative system undergoes reform.