The Modernization of the Public Sector in an International Comparative Perspective

The scientific and political debate on 'administrative modernization' in the 1990s takes a rather uniform perspective of this global trend in the public sector. Different authors and commentators perceive the present 'moderni-zation' of the public sector in Western post-industrial countries, Eastern Europe, East Asia and developing countries as a fundamental change of the public sector introducing (private) management principles into the public administration. Also the OECD states that "there seems to be a significant convergence in the definition of the issues to address and the objectives which government ought to pursue" (OECD, 1993:13).