Public Sector Structural Reforms: A Failed Counter Revolution?

Abstract

Over the past 12 years our public service has passed through a process of apparent intense change. This change has been both putatively structural and cultural, and has been part of a political counter revolution in the larger society. I refer to it as a counter revolution because its purpose has been not to strike out in new directions but to revert to a previous political agenda specifically that which pertained prior to the election of the Liberals in 1890. Here, I want to try, firstly, to put the matter of public sector structural reform in some sort of broader historical context. And secondly, I want to pose the question: how successful has this counter revolution been in specific relation to the New Zealand public sector?