Public Governance in Europe: A Historical- Institutional Tour D’Horizon

Abstract

This chapter presents an international and historical overview of various types of states, administrations and ways of public governance in different European countries and the United States. The aim is to broaden the present debate about public management developments in Western administrations by placing it in an international comparative perspective, as well as a historical institutional one. The point of departure of this chapter is that the assertion that administrative reforms in Western countries converge towards one common ‘new public management’, is too simple. Indeed, managerial reforms are inevitable because of the underlying budgetary stress, but the national circumstances do matter, do exercise influence, and do differ. The main thesis of this chapter is that the institutional context of a particular state and administration is relevant for the form and content the reforms assume there, and for their success and failure. Introducing ‘public management’ reforms irrespective of the underlying institutional foundations of a country’s state and administration, is doomed to be a quickly fading fashion. Western states and administrations do differ considerably in many relevant respects. Understanding these differences requires insight in to their institutional backgrounds, and hence into the history of their state and administration. Before embarking on this tour d’horizon, let us further elaborate the main thesis.

An abbreviated version of this chapter will be published in a mini-symposium edited by B. Guy Peters and John Pierre in the journal Public Administration.