Premium
Institutions, distributional concerns, and public sector reform
Author(s) -
CHRISTENSEN JØRGEN GRØNNEGÅRD,
PALLESEN THOMAS
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6765.00574
Subject(s) - delegation , public sector , democracy , danish , politics , distribution (mathematics) , public economics , economics , public administration , business , political economy , political science , economy , law , mathematical analysis , linguistics , philosophy , management , mathematics
. As in otherWestern countries, a wave of reform has swept the Danish public sector. The record of these reforms is mixed and paradoxical; an ambiguous delegation of executive authority and radical privatization have been successfully implemented, while other measures, especially contracting out and user democracy or the introduction of greater choice, turn out to have failed. The paper argues that this experience offers two general lessons. First, shortterm costs and benefits are decisive to those who enact and implement public sector reform. Second, institutional factors specific to each type of reorganization have a major impact on the political distribution of costs and benefits.