Introduction: Reforming Public Sector Organizations

Abstract

New Public Management (NPM) assumes that task specialization results in efficiency gains (Hood 1991). Following this logic governments have structurally disaggregated major monolithic public sector organizations into smaller parts, with some degree of autonomy. Since the 1980s, this has been visible in the increase in decentralization and devolution, as well as in a clear expansion of the types and numbers of autonomous agencies. Two other changes in the political-administrative system occurred at the same time. First, the split between politics and administration was re-emphasized; secondly, the different phases in the policy cycle, i.e. policy design, policy implementation and policy evaluation, were organizationally split (Bouckaert et al. 2010).