A Government that worked better and cost less? – Evaluating three decades of reform and change in UK central government

Abstract

Christopher HOOD & Ruth DIXON, A Government that worked better & cost less? – Evaluating three decades of Reform and Change in UK Central Government (Oxford University Press, 2015) pp: 229, £30.00, ISBN 978-0-19-968702 (hbk) Those who have long toiled at the coalface of public administration and remember the development of ‘new managerialism’ in the 1980s and the promises of New Public Management (NPM) will welcome this volume which sets out to review the last thirty years and to ask searching questions about just how effective these techniques have been in reforming public expenditure, increasing efficiency and generally making the world a better place.