The New Public Management in Europe

Abstract

Since the turbulent economic conditions of the early 1970s, policy makers have become increasingly preoccupied with re-appraising the size and scope of the public sector. Pay determination systems, working conditions and personnel policies have come under increasing scrutiny. Persistent concerns about the growth of public expenditure, which almost all countries had started to address by the early 1990s, encouraged a more comprehensive approach to public sector reform. This phenomenon was reinforced by the process of economic and monetary integration. In some countries, such as France and Italy, the requirements for participation in EMU have been used — not always successfully — to justify unpalatable and politically sensitive proposals for expenditure controls and public service reform. Furthermore, there has been persistent criticism of the quality of public service provision. Increasing levels of prosperity and improvements in private sector customer service have encouraged citizens to make unfavorable comparisons with service delivery in the public sector (Flynn and Strehl, 1996).KeywordsPublic SectorTrade UnionCivil ServantIndustrial RelationPublic ManagementThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.