Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira and Peter Spink, eds.
Boulder, Co.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1999.
Available at Lynne Rienner Publishers
Review-article by Peter Siavetis
Neoconservative proposals for a minimal state notwithstanding, it has become increasingly clear in Latin America (and elsewhere) that the state must in fact be strengthened and the civil service reformed. This book contributes to the debate about the optimum role of the state, advancing the managerial approach to improving state capacity as far more effective than the bureaucratic perspective.
The authors explore general themes of managerial public administration and government reform, then focus on specific Latin American experiences and trends. Prominent throughout the book is the conviction that effective and efficient public policies require not only the action of the federal government, but also the active involvement of civil society and local governing bodies. Discussions of accountability, empowerment, citizenship values, new management instruments, and new institutions all point to the importance of a closer relationship between state and society in rebuilding the state to meet current and future challenges.
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, Brazil’s minister of science and technology, is also professor of economics at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation. He served previously as minister of federal administration and state reform, chief of staff of the government of São Paulo, and in 1987 as finance minister of Brazil. His numerous publications include Economic Crisis and State Reform in Brazil: Toward a New Interpretation of Latin America, recipient of the Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award in 1996. Peter Spink is professor and coordinator of the Program in Public Management and Citizenship at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation’s São Paulo School of Business Administration.
Contents
Foreword, Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Preface
1. Managerial Public Administration: Strategy and Structure for a New State
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira
2. On the Design of the State: A Principal-Agent Perspective
Adam Przeworski
3. The Global Revolution: Reforming Government-Sector Management
Donald F. Kettl
4. The Complementarity of Economic Restructuring and Rebuilding the State in Latin America
William Glade
5. Possibilities and Political Imperatives: Seventy Years of Administrative Reform in Latin America
Peter Spink
6. From Bureaucratic to Managerial Public Administration in Brazil
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira
7. Democratic Governability in Latin America at the End of the Twentieth Century
Joan Prats i Català
Bibliography
The Contributors
Index
About the Book