Introduction

Abstract

Fascination with markets has been a global phenomenon in recent decades. The application of market principles to public-sector organizations and operations, and the resultant impact of market and quasi-market forces on state activities, have been pervasive as well as profound. In macro-economic management, public service provision, social programme delivery, policy formulation and governance, market values and practices have made significant inroads. In the 1980s Reagan and Thatcher were no doubt the most notable advocates of market-based approaches, but since then American and British ways of restructuring and managing the public sector and public finances have been followed by developed and developing countries alike. The collapse of Communism in the former Soviet Union and East-Central Europe added new converts to the cause as market principles were embraced with differing degrees of enthusiasm both within and between states. Even in the bloc of countries that continued to profess a commitment to socialism, attempts were made to shift from plan to market. Among those states, none has gained a higher profile than China for the thorough manner in which markets have been developed on most fronts.