Understanding Public Management Reforms in Developing Countries

Starting from the 1980s both Western Democracies and developing countries found the reforms irresistible. However most developing countries replicated NPM-style reforms with contrasting results. Actually they did not reflected on the importance of the context in the designing and the implementation phases of public management reforms. The book highlights that several factors influence reforms and it presents a model for understanding public management reforms in developing countries. The model considers how socio-economic political and administrative variables may influence different phases of public management reforms in developing countries. The model also takes into account the external pressures that developing countries face by analyzing the role of the International Aid System. Hereafter the book presents how the model has been tested to the case of Peru by emphasizing the influence of each variable on the designing and implementation of the reform packages in Peru. Specifically the book concentrates on two case studies: the decentralization reform and the Civil Service reform in Peru.