Public Management Reforms in the OECD countries

Docente: Daniela Cristofoli

Tipo di corso: Master +2
Valore in crediti ECTS: 3
Riferimenti bibliografici sul sito della biblioteca (CoRe)

Academic year 2012/2013 - Fall semester

Learning objectives
Since the early Eighties many Governments all around the world have undertaken significant reform processes with the aim to introduce managerial principles and tools in the public sector. Even if it is possible to identify common paths in such reform processes, it is true that they have been implemented in different ways and with different results in different Countries. In this perspective, the course aims at exploring public management reform implementation in different European and not European Countries (US, Japan, Australia, etc.) in order to identify similarities and differences. At the end of the course, students will be able to analyze in a comparative perspective public management reforms in different Countries and suggest recommendations to implement them. The course can be divided into three parts. A first set of sessions comes to terms with what public management reform is and how it develops within public sector organizations. Theoretical foundations of public management reform are explored. Specifically, a model for analysing public management reform in a comparative perspective is proposed. A second set of sessions tackles the issues related to public management reform in Anglo-Saxon countries, in North-European countries and in Napoleonic countries. Some seminars will be arranged to explore public management reform in the former USSR and in Developing Countries. A third set of sessions focuses on the results of public management reform and sheds light on the "next step" to implement them.

Course outline
- Comparative public administration: a primer.
- A model of public management reform.
- Context, trajectories and results of public management reform.
- Public management reforms in Anglo-Saxon Countries: United States, UK and Japan.
- Public management reforms in North European Countries: Netherlands and Scandinavian Countries.
- Public management reforms in Napoleonic Countries: France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece.
- Public management reforms in the former USSR.
- Public management reforms in Developing Countries.
- Public management reforms in Switzerland.
- Trade-offs, balances, limits, dilemmas and paradoxes of public management reform.

Suggested Reading
C. Pollitt, G. Bouckaert, Public Management Reform. A comparative Analysis, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004. 2nd ed.
Collection of articles and papers suggested by the teacher.