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 about finding better definitions. Measuring government requires a number of leaps of...

The growth of rating and ranking systems is one of the dominant trends in contemporary public services reform. They are recent innovations in governance, and often highly controversial. There is active debate about the meaningfulness of the data made available to the public, and about the effect...

Informal payments are quite common in public services in many – especially developing countries to facilitate access to and quality of services. Health care is one sector where informal payments are often used. Patients give doctors, nurses and hospital staff gifts or money, or offer services...

The choice-overload hypothesis states that increasing the number of alternatives reduces people’s motivation to choose. Possible adverse effects of choice-overload in liberalized public service markets have been discussed repeatedly, however, an empirical evaluation of whether this holds true...

There is an increasing interest to study public administrations, public managers or citizens interactions with, and views towards government from a comparative perspective in order to put theories to test using cross-national surveys. However, this will only succeed if we adequately deal with...

In their search for empirical credibility, public management researchers may search for topics that lend themselves more easily to experimental methods. This chapter looks at how the use of the experimental method may change the questions asked in the field of public management. Possible...

The degree to which different social groups get along is a key indicator of the cohesiveness of a society. This study examines perceptions of social cohesion amongst Europeans and explains variations in those perceptions by considering the separate and combined effects of economic strain and...

Policy responses to the global financial crisis can be divided into pro- and counter-cyclical approaches. The former advocates reducing public spending in times of financial constraints. The latter approach advocates public spending to boost the economy. Using public opinion (N=23,652) data from...

Public sectors have undergone major transformations. Public sector reform touches upon the core building blocks of the public sector: organizational structures, people and finances. These are objects of reform. This chapter presents and discusses a set of major transformations with regard to...

Concerns for restoring citizens' trust in government are at the core of public sector modernization. Public distrust is often blamed on the bad functioning of public services, and in political discourse well-functioning public services are said to create trust in government. This is a very...