The public sector and civil society: A somewhat neglected issue in public sector reforms

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Authors

DE VRIES Michiel S.

Year of publication 2013
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Open Public Administration Review
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Economics and Administration

Citation
Web http://www.ru.nl/publish/pages/723942/01_the_public_sector_and_civil_society_article_for_opar.pdf
Field Management and administrative
Keywords Societal Groups; Public Administration; New Public Management; National Public Management
Description What has to be done in order to increase citizen involvement in public affairs? This article addresses the issue of the publicness of public administration. It argues that when one wants to have greater involvement of the people in public policy development, public decision-making and service delivery, one should rethink whether it is really necessary to reform the public sector internally over and over again and at least rethink the direction of such reforms. Too often the cause of all problems encountered in governmental actions is sought in the internal structure of the public administrative arrangements with the consequence that one has to restructure and reform. Public sector reform is increasingly conceived as a panacea, a one-size-fits-all solution: ‘Whatever the problem, administrative reform will solve it’. This article will argue that this is not necessarily so.
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