ABSTRACT
The experience in administrative reform appears to be exactly the opposite of those stereotypes. Even if all political leaders had the same level of ambition to reform their governments, they would be faced with vast differences in the political and administrative structures, and hence equally vast differences in their capacity to produce change. The capacity of Mrs. Thatcher to push through a series of rather dramatic administrative reforms in Britain, for example, reflects in part the capacity of leaders in parliamentary systems to impose their ideas on government. The ‘how’ element of reform often has been a forgotten component of analysis, as politicians rush to announce their new ideas for making government work better and to gain as much political recognition as possible for their efforts. The attenuated process of reform in the United Kingdom may have failed unless there had been the political continuity to keep the pressure on the public sector.
