The Modernization of the Public Sector in an International Comparative Perspective

Here, it will be argued that administrative modernization in the sense of the NPM is a global process but local in implementation. This amounts to the hypothesis that administrative modernization is 'culture and institution bound'. Tue institutional contingency approach taken in this study reflects the need to examine the nature of the multiple environmental conditions that structure how public organizations implement 'administrative modernization '. An environmental contingency model of administrative modernization strategies allows to reason on the NPM from "outside to inside" (Koiman and van Vliet, 1993:59) and to link two rather isolated concepts to each other: the governance concept with an interactive perspective on governing and the NPM concept with an orientation on the internal functioning of public organzations