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Janus-faced reorganization: specialization and coordination in four OECD countries in the period 1980—2005

Public Management Institute (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium)

Geert Bouckaert

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and President of the European Group of Public Administration

B. Guy Peters

University of Pittsburgh

It is believed that the New Public Management (NPM) doctrine resulted in a disaggregation and a suboptimal fragmentation of government in the 1980s and 1990s, which called for a re-strengthening of the coordination capacity through renewed hierarchy-type mechanisms, market-type mechanisms and network-type mechanisms. In order to assess the validity of this assumption, this article identifies the trajectory of specialization and coordination in four countries (New Zealand, United Kingdom, Sweden, France). The results support the assumption, although different trajectories are discernible. Also, the results point to the renewed emphasis on coordination based on hierarchy, along with markets and networks.

Key Words: France • hierarchy • Joined-up Government • markets • networks • New Zealand • Sweden • United Kingdom

International Review of Administrative Sciences, Vol. 73, No. 3, 325-348 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0020852307081144


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