ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the ways in which public sector reform in post-conflict societies can be influenced by critical factors such as environmental complexity and institutional legitimacy in the delivery of public services and the management of development. It is important to acknowledge the importance of the structural configuration of the public sector and the various designs of the machinery of governance though it focuses on ecological or environmental variables of public sector reform. The chapter argues that development management often requires an appropriate fit between the operating environment of public agencies and the structures and processes of the machinery of government. More importantly, while there has been a laudable recognition of the weaknesses in the paraphernalia of statehood in Africa, the discussion of public sector reform has had the tendency to be narrowly focused on the structural and technical dimensions of public management. Two sets of ideas inform the new public management (NPM): public choice theory and managerialism.
