WOLLMANN, Hellmut <br/><br/>
Germany`s trajectory of public sector modernisation :  continuities and discontinuities 

 -  2001 
<br/><br/> This article argues that the discourse on public sector modernisaton has recently been internationally dominated by new public management (NPM) and that the underlying Anglo-Saxon model and its implicit conceptual, if not epistemological. 'Anglo-centricity' may lead to over-accentuate NPM-driven convergence, while disregarding developments in countries with different ('non-Anglo Saxon) state and societal traditions. Looking at Germany`s modernisation trajectory as a case in point, the article argues that Germany`s public sector, while finally falling ('convergently') in line with some of the NPM  imperatives ( since the early 1990s), continues to be ('path-dependently') shaped by traditional  features, such as, in the intergovernmental setting, vertical divison on functions, territorality and multi-purpose 'unitary' local government, which make for persisting 'divergence'. Instead of merely reflecting countryspecific (German) particularities and idiosycracies, this trajectory may represent a variant within a wider 'continental European' pattern distinct from the Anglo-Saxon one