ABSTRACT
New public management (NPM) as a model for public-sector reform has spread rapidly to many countries over the past two decades. Spearheaded by reform entrepreneurs such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and some Anglo-Saxon trailblazers (Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2004), the reform wave has, with varying degrees of intensity, encompassed mainly Western democracies but also affected some developing countries via the influence of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (2000). Although NPM now seems to have peaked and have been modified in countries that might be regarded as NPM pioneers, such as New Zealand (Gregory, 2003), it is still having a major impact on the structure and functioning of the public sector in many countries. In many cases a previously integrated state structure has become considerably more diffuse or even fragmented. Although this is the main picture, there is a considerable degree of national variation resulting from differences in the existing structural apparatus prior to reform and in historical-cultural traditions and determined by the extent of external pressure for reform (Christensen & Lægreid, 2001).
