Civil servants and politicians: the changing balance Part I - The anglo-american democracies 2 - Public service bargains and public service reform 3 - Reinventing government, or reinventing politics? The american experience 4 - Agencies, ministers and civil servants in Britain Part II - Continental Europe 5 - Bureaucrats and politicians in the politics of administrative reforms in France (1988-1997) 6 - A solid rock in rough seas? Institutional change and continuity in the German federal bureaucracy 7 - New public management from a theoretical and Austrian perspective 8 - Politicians, bureaucrats and administrative reform in Hungary: who stops whom? 9 - Bureaucratic politics in Spain: a long-lasting tradition 10 - (Re)shaping the politics-administrations nexus in Greece: the decline of a symbiotic relationship? Part III - Scandinavia 11 - Bureaucratic autonomy as a political asset 12 - Parallel paths? Administrative reform, public policy and politico-bureaucratic relationships in Sweden 13 - The reform 'industry' in the Finnish government: towards the new welfare idea through the central and local administrative reforms of the 1980s and 1990s 14 - Politicians, bureaucrats and public sector in Australia and New Zeland 15 - Party members, elite bureacrats and government reform in Japan's changing political landscape Part V- Conclusions 16- The comparative dimension of administrative reform: creating open village and redesigning the politics of administration