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Civil Service Reforms, Public Service Bargains and Dynamics of Institutional Change

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Comparative Civil Service Systems in the 21st Century

Abstract

Following three decades of managerialist change and privatization, the aftermath of the financial crisis has launched another age of civil service reform. Initial responses to the age of austerity have been pay freezes and cuts, a further push towards outsourcing of public services, as well as, in some countries, extensive redundancies. Furthermore, decades of civil service reform across OECD and non-OECD countries have not led to a sense of stability: across countries, politicians are bemoaning the lack of a responsive civil service and a civil service that is ‘fit for purpose.’ Such calls for responsiveness contrast with those who argue that a ‘Weberian,’ ‘merit-based’ bureaucracy is at the heart of ‘good governance’ (see Dahlström, Lapuente and Teorell, 2012). The politics of austerity, climate change and aging populations will provide for further tension between the competing preferences for political responsiveness, on the one hand, and supposedly detached expertise, on the other (Lodge, 2013).

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Authors
  1. Philippe Bezes
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  2. Martin Lodge
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Public Administration, Leiden University, The Netherlands

    Frits M. van der Meer (CAOP Professor of Comparative Civil Service and Public Sector Reform) & Jos C. N. Raadschelders (Professor and Associate Director of Faculty, affiliated Professor of Public Administration) (CAOP Professor of Comparative Civil Service and Public Sector Reform) &  (Professor and Associate Director of Faculty, affiliated Professor of Public Administration)

  2. John Glenn School of Public Affairs, Ohio State University, USA

    Jos C. N. Raadschelders (Professor and Associate Director of Faculty, affiliated Professor of Public Administration) (Professor and Associate Director of Faculty, affiliated Professor of Public Administration)

  3. Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

    Theo A. J. Toonen (Dean, Chair in Institutional Governance and Public Administration) (Dean, Chair in Institutional Governance and Public Administration)

  4. Delft and Leiden University, The Netherlands

    Theo A. J. Toonen (Dean, Chair in Institutional Governance and Public Administration) (Dean, Chair in Institutional Governance and Public Administration)

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© 2015 Philippe Bezes and Martin Lodge

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Bezes, P., Lodge, M. (2015). Civil Service Reforms, Public Service Bargains and Dynamics of Institutional Change. In: van der Meer, F.M., Raadschelders, J.C.N., Toonen, T.A.J. (eds) Comparative Civil Service Systems in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137491459_8

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