Controlling Modern Government: Variety, Commonality and Change

Are public sector institutions being exposed to ever-greater oversight, audit and inspection in the name of efficiency, accountability and risk management? Controlling Modern Government explores the long-term development of controls over government across five major state traditions in developed democracies - US, Japan, variants of continental-European models, a Scandinavian case and variants of the Westminster model. A central aspect of the study is an eight country comparison of variety in the use of controls based in oversight, competition, mutuality and contrived randomness in the selected domains of the high bureaucracy at the core of the state, the higher education sector and the prison sector. Countries covered include Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK and the USA. Providing a comparison of trends in the last quarter century in control over public sector activities in OECD countries, this book will be invaluable reading for academics and graduate students focussing on political science and public administration, as well as policymakers in OECD countries.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface Part I: Introduction 1. Controlling Public Services and Government: Towards a Cross-National Perspective Part II: Control over Government in Three Domains 2. Prisons: Varying Oversight and Mutuality, Much Tinkering, Limited Control 3. Higher Education and University Research: Harnessing Competition and Mutuality to Oversight? 4. Higher Civil Servants: Neither Mutuality Implosion nor Oversight Explosion Part III: Conclusions 5. Conclusion: Making Sense of Controls over Government Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Edited by the late Christopher Hood, formerly Emeritus Professor of Government, Department of Politics and International Relations and Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oliver James, Department of Politics, University of Exeter, UK, B. Guy Peters, Maurice Falk Professor of Government, University of Pittsburgh, US and Colin Scott, Vice-Principal for Research and Innovation, UCD College of Business and Law and Professor of EU Regulation and Governance, UCD School of Law, University College Dublin, Ireland

Review :
"'This book takes the comparative study of regulation to a new level. Working with contributions across three domains by a number of national experts, the authors weave a dazzling account of the rich variety of oversight mechanisms in public services and central government. The book provides not only detailed cross-national empirical analysis but also a compelling theoretical lens for the comparative analysis of regulatory systems. Superbly written, this is simply a must for every scholar and policymaker with a serious interest in the nature of regulatory and control practices.' - Michael Power, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK; 'This book sets a new standard for systematic use of comparative information in studies on accountability and control. It is a welcome change from the past tendency in this field to build theoretical mountains on empirical molehills.' - Charles Polidano, Office of the Prime Minister, Malta"