ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses that 'legislative approach' taken by the Latvian government and contrasts it with the experiences of public agencies which voluntarily introduced ISO 9000 before the legislation was passed. It analyses the reasons for the legislative approach and the political processes that led to the ISO 9001 decree. The chapter focuses on an empirical analysis of the motivations of public agencies for introducing ISO 9000 and the expected benefits. The working group was aware that the voluntary introduction of quality initiatives and models is common practice internationally. A number of quality managers considered the introduction of quality management as necessary to improve citizen satisfaction. The issue of a quality management system was included in the reform programme as a way to address the traditional problems of bureaucracy: size and resource consumption. The chapter concludes by speculating about the future development of quality management in the Latvian public sector.
