PUBLIC CHOICE THEORY AND PUBLIC CHOICES - BUREAUCRATS AND STATE REORGANIZATION IN AUSTRALIA, DENMARK, NEW-ZEALAND, AND SWEDEN IN THE 1980S

Reorganizers of the state in Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, and Swed en during the 1980s tried to separate policy-making from the productio n of welfare and other services by introducing market disciplines and competition. Fiscal bureaucrats, afraid of rising fiscal deficits and public debt, sought to control what they saw as rent-seeking behavior and agent abuse of principals in the public sector. They argued these changes would reduce incentives for collective rent-seeking behavior a nd prevent shirking. Fiscal bureaucrats thus sought to control future behavior in the public sector by changing the incentive structures wor kers and agency managers faced.