ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses strategic policy documents from four countries (Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark) in which the outlines have been formulated of the most recent modernization strategies of government. While these programmes might provide an indication of the dominant shifts in governance that occur in public administration. The chapter also focuses on the assumptions more specifically, the language and rhetoric that are used to express them, in that lay behind a number of shifts and modes of governance as proposed in four European countries' programs to modernize government. It then describes our research strategy for selecting and comparing relevant modernization programs and analyses the modernization programs of four European countries that were drafted between 1999 and 2003. In the final step of our analysis, the chapter focuses on the consequences of these programs for democracy and legitimacy.
