Different roads to unfamiliar places: UK experience in comparative perspective

This article views the new public management (NPM) as a prime example of th e sour laws of unintended consequences in action. Section I places the UK i n international context by arguing there is no such thing as NPM and sugges ting recent public sector reforms vary along six dimensions: privatisation, marketisation, corporate management, regulation, decentralisation and poli tical control. Section 2 updates the UK story by describing developments un der New Labour Section 3 identifies the unintended consequences of reform: fragmentation, steering, accountability, co-ordination, and public service ethics. Section 4 argues the conventional story of public sector reform as marketization and corporate management omits significant changes. British g overnment differentiated its service delivery systems and now employs at le ast three governing structures: bureaucracy, markets and networks. The fina l section discusses whether British experience is different I argue a satis factory explanation of the differences must include an analysis of governme ntal traditions that make public sector reform distinctive everywhere.