Continuity and Change in Public Policy and Management

Continuity and Change in Public Policy and Management offers a major reconsideration of patterns in long-term policymaking and organizational change. Christopher Pollitt and Geert Bouckaert use international and inter-sectoral comparison to challenge some currently fashionable models of policymaking.Combining theory development, international comparison and original case study analysis, two of Europe's leading public policy and management scholars apply and develop some of the main models of policy change and offer a revealing long-term view of policy developments since 1965. Drawing on an extensive programme of elite interviews and documentary analysis they provide an integrated treatment of national and local policymaking in two major public services - hospital care and the police - in England and Belgium. This timely book addresses the 'paradigm wars' in public policy, arguing for a nuanced intermediate position that challenges the orthodox and the post-modernists alike. This fascinating core book will be highly sought by advanced students and academics in public administration, public management, government, comparative politics or public policy courses. It will also prove to be an important tool for students in police studies and healthcare management.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface 1. Theory and Method in Comparative Studies of Organizational Change 2. National Reforms: The Belgian and English Regimes 3. National Reforms: Hospitals 4. National Reforms: Police 5. National Reforms: Intersectoral Comparison 6. What Happened Locally? Hospitals 7. What Happened Locally? Police 8. Reflections on Theories of Change 9. Reflections on Doctrines of Comparison Appendix: The Brighton–Leuven Project References Index

About the Author :
The Late Christopher Pollitt, formerly Emeritus Professor, Public Governance Institute, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium and Geert Bouckaert, Director, Public Management Institute, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and President, European Group for Public Administration, Belgium

Review :
'This comparative account of public policy and management in England and Belgium provides a fascinating and absorbing analysis of change between 1965 and 2005. Using a historical institutionalist approachA", Pollitt and Bouckaert draw on local case studies of the police and hospitals in Brighton and Leuven to illustrate the complex interface between national policy making and its implementation and to highlight the difficulties of managing change in major institutions. They argue that differences derive from the distinctive features of the national political systems whereas similarities, such as organisational specialisation, managerialism and technological change, are generated by international trends in society and technology. This text, at once readable, thoughtful and provocative, will appeal widely to both those who study policy and those whose aim is to make and implement it at national or local level.' - Sue Balloch, University of Brighton, UK 'This lucid, vivid and intelligent book on continuity and changeA" in policy and management by Pollitt and Bouckaert follows in the footsteps of Pollitt's previous book on the issue of time, a vital but often neglected issue. In the present book the focus is on comparisons: Britain and Belgium, hospitals and police, national and local, and comparison over time. Again conceptually rich, this book makes you think. The best a book can do.' - Walter Kickert, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands