The specificity of public service reform

Abstract

Despite universal recognition of the decline of public services and the need for reforms, considerable divergence of views exists on the strategy and sequencing of reform for individual countries according to their capacities and level of development. This article reflects on the general contours of public service reform, emphasising past experience, the need to be pragmatic rather than idealistic, the mudding of the waters by the New Public Management movement, the complications of structural adjustment programmes of international financial institutions and the damage resulting from the imposition of universal solutions unfitted and unsuitable to local circumstances. Reform needs political and bureaucratic champions, careful preparation, patience and necessary investment, and capacity to neutralise opposition. Ultimately, one has to allow for a shifting combination of history, culture, politics, economics, sociology, ideology and values in each country.This analysis is applied to the possibility of reforming the public service of India, the second most populous country in the world, and the lessons to be gleaned for developing and implementing the strategy.The article then concludes with an outline of some universal problems facing public service reformers all around the globe such as corruption, the future role of government, shape of the civil service, reversing its erosion and addressing issues of fragmentation, compensation and diversity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Public sector reform in Sub‐Saharan Africa: what can be learnt from the civil service performance improvement programme in Ghana?

“…Such reforms tend to compel recipient developing nations to produce target bound 'so called' good practice cases. What would appear to be the reality with regards to civil service reform in the context of the Ghanaian experience recounted in the previous section, and what has been found by Caiden and Sundaram (2004) in a recent study of administrative reform in India, suggests the need to recognise that:…”

“…The approach has encompassed techniques and approaches, some old, some new such as job rotation, job enrichment, total quality management, project teams, strategic planning, performance budgeting and re-engineering, familiar in international businesses, but quite rare in large public bureaucracies (Golembiewski et al, 2002;Caiden and Sundaram, 2004). From these, public service reformers have selected and implemented approved programmes with more success in the developed than in the less developed economies (Polidano and Hulme, 1999).…”

“…Understandably, the two methodological notions would lead to two principles on public policy decision-making or what Coleman (1990) refers to as 'the logic of individualistic explanation': that public sector actors behave in a way that maximises their own self-interest; and that all social entities are fundamentally sets of individual actors (Lane, 1995, p. 205 andMueller, 1979, p. 1). The argument is that, instead of public servants working with the principle of contributing to achieving efficiency and effectiveness in public service delivery rather, they had grown too secure, unimaginative and complacent and expenditures are now exceeding income (Caiden and Sundaram, 2004).…”

Enhancing government's policy management and decision‐making system: The case of Ghana's central governance reforms project

“…Four sets of activities were earmarked: Activities supporting the political engagement for an orderly transition of government, and the civil service as it prepared for a transition of government. This was based on the finding that reforms in the public sector are usually successful when they receive the support of both politicians and bureaucrats (Reschenthaler and Thompson ; Gruening ; Caiden and Sundaram ; Keen et al ; Antwi et al ). Activities supporting capacity to apply executive decision‐making, including implementation of the Cabinet Memorandum Manual with appropriate training and coaching. Activities supporting application of the management information system, and the capacity to test and refine the cabinet decision tracking system in the Office of the President. Activities promoting gender equality in the decision‐making system, supporting the application of gender impact analysis and the use of the gender assessment tool in the Cabinet Memorandum Manual. …”

Top‐Level Pay, Performance, and Competence: Do Theory and Reality Ever Meet?

“…Similarly, international development researchers generally agree that improving governance capacity is a viable route to economic growth and political stability, particularly for the world’s poorest countries (Collier 2007). However, because good governance involves a number of complex and interrelated structures and systems, including civil service (Caiden and Sundaram 2004; Klingner 2006), they are not always sure what specific actions, particularly civil service reforms, will actually be effective in any given case.…”