- Part I - Introduction 1. Controlling public services and government: towards a cross-national perspective - Christopher Hood - Part II - Control over government in theree domains 2. Prisons: varying oversight and mutuality, much tinkering limited control 2.1 Overview - Oliver James and Christopher Hood 2.2 Japan: hierarchically ordered mutuality in a semi-hidden world - Takashi Nishio 2.3 US federal prisons: bureau family mutuality in the 'government of strangers' - Arjen Boin and Oliver James 2.4 England and wales: combining oversight with public-private competition - Oliver James 2.5 Germany: tinkering with oversight and mutuality in a legalistic state tradition - Martin Lodge 2.6 France: ineffective oversight in the land of inspections générales - Marie Vogel 2.7 The netherlands: a professional mutuality/oversight hybrid under pressure - Arjen Boin 2.8 Norway: a stable oversight/mutuality hybrid amid limited diversification of professional mutuality - Per Laergreid and Marjoleine H. Wik 2.9 Australia: variety in reforms to oversight alongside increased public-private competition - Colin Scott 3. Higher education and university research: harnessing competition and mutuality to oversight? 3.1 Overview - Colin Scott and Christopher Hood 3.2 The USA: little oversight, no explosion - B. Guy Peters 3.3 Japan: adapting the American model to centralized oversight - Katsyua Hirose 3.4 France: mutuality and oversight in tension? - Nicole de Montricher 3.5 Germany: growing competition at the expense of mutuality - Hans-Ulrich Derlien 3.6 The netherlands: a mixed patterm of control - Jeroen Huisman and theo Toonen 3.7 Norway: holding back competition? - Ivar Bleiklie 3.8 Australia: linking oversight to mutuality and competition - Collin Scott 3.9 The UK: hyper-regulation and regulatory reform - Colin Scott 4. Higher civil servants: neither mutuality impolsion nor oversight explosion 4.1 Overview - B. Guy Peters and Christopher Hood 4.2 The USA: higt on oversight, low on mutuality? - B. Guy Peters 4.3 Japan: Where mutuality reigns supreme? - Takashi Nishio 4.4 France: high mutuality, some randomness, weak oversight - Nicole de Montricher 4.5 Germany: village life becoming more complicated - Hans-Ulrich Derlien 4.6 The netherlands: edging away from pure mutuality? - Theo Toon and Frits M. van der Meer 4.7 Norway: managerialism and parliamentary oversight in lock-step? - Per Laergreid 4.8 The UK and Australia: two westminster-model states compared - Christopher Hood and Colin Scott - Part III - Conclusions 5. Conclusion: marking sense of controls over government - Christopher Hood