Public Management: Raising Our Game

Whatever the colour of the new government after the election, success in tackling social and economic policy problems will prove elusive without a fundamentally different approach to policy making and implementation. The authors argue that the fundamental challenge to the new government is to change the architecture of the system of public policy formulation and implementation to make it fit for purpose. There is growing evidence that the current system can no longer deliver effective responses to the increasingly complex problems faced by society. Radical change is needed to the processes and machinery which exist today, without abandoning innovations in public service management or the Thatcher and Major regimes, or returning to previous systems of government. The practice of public management is central to this change.