Many organizations have introduced service charters to improve service quality and user satisfaction. However, this goal is not always achieved, with the literature showing both implementation successes and failures. In this article, we analyse the organizational enablers for the implementation...

Public opinion does not fall out of the sky. What passes for public opinion in the European Union is largely the answers of its citizens to questions posed in surveys commissioned and controlled by the European Commission. This paper presents the first systematic mapping of the topics and...

Is there evidence for the emergence of 'two-track' public services, where the wealthiest, best-informed and most assertive customers get the best quality service? In this paper, we use public opinion data of citizen complaint behaviour from 2000 and 2004 towards services of general interest in...

We examine the relationship between a range of new public management (NPM) practices and citizens' perceptions of service efficiency, responsiveness, equity and effectiveness in English local governments. We find that public-private relationships have a negative relationship with citizens'...

<title>Abstract</title> Measuring and comparing the overall performance of countries' public sectors requires agreement on definitions and objectives of government. I argue that such an agreement is about finding a consensus rather than about finding <italic>better</italic> definitions. Measuring government requires a number...

<title>Abstract</title> Competing values complicate debates on the reform of public services. Attention for competition and efficiency is balanced by concerns for equity and universality in service delivery. These potential value conflicts are best visible in the reform of services of general interest. Despite...

This paper analyses how public managers use performance information. A sample of over 3,100 high-level public sector executives from six European countries, provided evidence of significant country variations. Considerable variations were also found in patterns of use in different policy fields;...

Charters are official commitments to quality and reform. Belgium introduced its Charter of the User of Public Services in 1993. The federal administration's Copernicus reform began in 1999 and had a strong external outlook. It therefore may be considered as a second User Charter. In this article...