Describing the shift in the New Zealand public sector from administrative controls to a performance-driven system, this book analyses the evolution of public sector management, its current state and areas for improvement.

It offers a rich menu of ideas and experiences for any country determined to improve public management, including lessons from the successes and failures of the New Zealand reformers.

Dr Graham Scott, former secretary to the New Zealand Treasury, was one of the architects of the New Zealand reforms of public management and fiscal and economic policy in the 1980s and early 1990s.