REINVENTING GOVERNMENT: A SYMPOSIUM

While the publication of ‘cult’ texts has become somewhat common place in the management world it is much more of a rarity in public administration. However, the success in the United States of David Osborne and Ted Gaebler's Reinventing Government 1992) may be a pointer to the emergence of an identifiable and coherent field of public management offering analysis and prescriptions in tune with management reform in government on both sides of the Atlantic. In the symposium that follows we offer three different perspectives on ‘Reinventing Government’. In the first, Sir Robin Butler indicates how the major themes of the book can be seen to correspond with many of the recent management initiatives in UK government. In the second, Grant Jordan raises some questions on the assumptions made in Osborne and Gaebler's thesis and questions some of their prescriptions. In the final article, Rod Rhodes describes some alternative academic perspectives which he believes could inform the reform of government debate and asks what makes a cult best seller.