Throughout the industrialized world, reform of the system of public administration is on the agenda: in both Australia and New Zealand, in both the United States and Canada, in both Britain and Sweden. In all these countries there are problems relating to the tasks assigned to the state, the efficiency of the state, of the extent and the results of its interventions. In a good number of the countries mentioned, thorough reforms are in fact under way. The example of the United Kingdom is especially interesting because the reforms have been a major element in the programmes of successive Prime Ministers: Margaret Thatcher, John Major and, since 1997, Tony Blair. Each of them in turn has helped to bring about radical administrative reforms over the course of the last 20 years or more.
This article concentrates mainly on analysing the reform of the public administration launched by the Blair government in 1998, in particular with regard to improving the process of drawing up and implementing public policies.
La réforme de l'administration britannique
Cet article fait partie de la revue Futuribles n° 287, juin 2003
