Creating joined-up government

While coordination across departments has long been a goal of government, since the late 1990s joining-up has taken central stage and is now viewed as essential to the core business of government and public administration. At present, joined-up government continues to have appeal in many industrialised countries. However, research is still catching up with the expansion of joined-up working and there continues to be no specific body of evidence upon which judgements about the success of joined-up government can be made, or which can be drawn on in the planning and implementation of new initiatives.

This chapter draws together peer-reviewed, empirical investigations of joined-up government, synthesising available exploratory evidence on the process of creating joined-up government. These are then compared and contrasted with an Australian national joined-up initiative – the Social Inclusion Agenda.