Contract regimes and reflexive governance : comparing employment service reforms in the United Kingdom, the netherlands, New Zealand and Australia
By: Considine, Mark
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Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: 2000Public Administration: an international quarterly 78, 3, p. 613-638Abstract: Contemporary debates concerning the nature of `new governance`typically focus upon the shifting roles played by bureaucracies, networks and markets in the provision of public services (Kooiman 1993;Ormsby 1988). At the core of these recent changes we find a strong interest in having private agents deliver public services. Sometimes this is expressed as privatization and in other case a `mixed economy` of public and private participation may be devised (Williamson 1975; Moe 1984). In this study a number of central elements of neo-liberal public management are brought together in a single focus upon the `contract regime` in order to examine the extent to which single initiatives might combine to produce a recognizable system of governance. Such an institutional form may then be more carefully specified and its impact compared in different governmental systems. Using a four-country comparison of employment service reform the study shows that distinctions based upon degree of privatization do not adequately explain regime types whereas distinctions based upon `compliance-centred`of `client-centred`forms of contracting are more powerful. The type of reflexive interation between different elements or levels of contracting also explains country differences
| Item type | Current location | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Periódico | Biblioteca Graciliano Ramos | Periódico | Not for loan |
Contemporary debates concerning the nature of `new governance`typically focus upon the shifting roles played by bureaucracies, networks and markets in the provision of public services (Kooiman 1993;Ormsby 1988). At the core of these recent changes we find a strong interest in having private agents deliver public services. Sometimes this is expressed as privatization and in other case a `mixed economy` of public and private participation may be devised (Williamson 1975; Moe 1984). In this study a number of central elements of neo-liberal public management are brought together in a single focus upon the `contract regime` in order to examine the extent to which single initiatives might combine to produce a recognizable system of governance. Such an institutional form may then be more carefully specified and its impact compared in different governmental systems. Using a four-country comparison of employment service reform the study shows that distinctions based upon degree of privatization do not adequately explain regime types whereas distinctions based upon `compliance-centred`of `client-centred`forms of contracting are more powerful. The type of reflexive interation between different elements or levels of contracting also explains country differences
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