ABSTRACT
The scope of the public sector in Western democracies has dramatically expanded since the late 1940s as it has tried to keep pace with ever more pervasive externalities, the increasing uncertainties facing industry, and demands by citizens for more social services. Revenues and expenditures have risen, but so has a perception of an ‘implementation deficit’. Under the auspices of, first, political science and public administration, and, subsequently, policy studies, a vast literature has focussed on this ‘problem’. It would seem public programmes are never adequately implemented. From the perspective of most of these analyses, the modern state has promised programmes which it cannot deliver.
