Public Management Reform and Modernization

Book excerpt: Ongaro has made a major contribution to understanding the political and adminstrative systems of Southern Europe. The work goes beyond that, however, by providing an excellent example of comparative analysis in general. This book should be read by all students of comparative administration. B. Guy Peters, University of Pittsburgh, US and City University of Hong Kong This is an important book for several reasons. Public sector reform debates and policies have been heavily perhaps too heavily influenced by Anglo-Saxon models, and literature on reforms in the Latin part of Europe has, until now, only been available in a fragmented way. However, this unique new book offers a coherent vision across Southern Europe. It refers to important parts of our history and how these still influence current times. It also shows that culture does make a difference, and that contingencies are important. European public sector reform is as diverse as the range of its administrative histories, and this book is therefore crucial in our understanding of the future in relation to the past. Geert Bouckaert, Public Management Institute, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and European Group for Public Administration This systematic, thorough and insightful book offers one of the very rare comparative studies of public management reform in Italy, France, Greece, Portugal and Spain. A unique and most valuable study. Walter Kickert, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands Scholars of public management reform have been at it for many years but there was always a gap little was really known about southern Europe, those countries that come from the Napoleonic tradition. Now, Professor Edoardo Ongaro of Bocconi University has filled that gap, and we will all profit from his diligent and insightful work. Jeffrey D. Straussman, Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, US Theoretically eclectic and empirically rich, this is a much-needed volume on the dark side of the moon, that is, public management reform outside the Anglo-Saxon world. Edoardo Ongaro sheds light on Italy and four other Napoleonic systems by producing a far-reaching comparative analysis that also captures the effects of Europeanization and multi-level governance on public management reforms. Ambitious yet ultimately accessible, this book is a must-read for those who want to explain and understand the trajectories of reform in their historical context. Claudio Radaelli, University of Exeter, UK The reader will find in Professor Ongaro s book a clear and thorough discussion of the public sector reform process both in Italy and southern European countries based upon a systematic comparative framework. This is a very useful and original work that any student in comparative politics or public administration will highly appreciate. Luc Rouban, CNRS, Centre de Recherches Politiques de Science Po (CEVIPOF), Paris, France This scholarly volume makes an interesting and distinctive contribution to the global public management reform debate by offering an analysis of reform trajectories in an important but rather neglected group of Southern European countries. Ewan Ferlie, King's College London, UK Since the 1980s, a wave of reforms of public management has swept the world. The investigation into the effects of such major transformations has, however, been unbalanced: important countries have received only limited attention. This timely book fills the gap by investigating the dynamics of contemporary public management reform in five European countries that gave shape to the Napoleonic administrative tradition France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain. Edoardo Ongaro presents an in-depth investigation of the reform of public management in these countries, revisiting major topics of theoretical interest in the study of public administration. He addresses key issues regarding the influence of the past on the transformation of the public se