The Management and Control of Executive Agencies: an Anglo-Dutch Comparison

In Chapter 3 Walter Kickert explored recent developments in three continental countries where New Public Management (NPM) reforms have been attempted, but in various ways have been absorbed, adapted or resisted so as not to fundamentally disturb the basic bureaucratic traditions and culture of the countries concerned. Later, in Chapter 9, we will look at a situation where the UK introduced performance indicators early and on a large scale, whereas the Netherlands only moved twenty years later, and very cautiously even then. In both those chapters, therefore, we find diversity between countries and continuity of national traditions, and only marginal convergence by continental states towards Anglo-American-style NPM. The subject of this chapter may at first sight seem a much more promising example of international convergence, as we are going to examine the creation, management and control of central government executive agencies in the UK and the Netherlands.