ABSTRACT
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a new terminology emerged in the public sector. Commentators spoke of revitalising or reengineering the public sector or-most notably-of ‘reinventing government’ (Osborne and Gaebler 1992). However, whilst the terminology and the examples were new, most of the concepts and processes were not since they drew on the longer tradition of public sector reform: ‘Reinvention is only the latest initiative in the enduring cycle of reform’ (Ingraham 1996:454). To understand what is meant by ‘reinventing government’ we must therefore first understand what is meant by public sector reform.
