Public Sector Employment Regimes: Transformations of the State as an Employer

Public employment regimes are changing. New forms of service provision based on performance assessment have replaced the traditional model of the civil servant who offers obedience and loyalty in exchange for privileged employment conditions. This book explores the extent to which the material and ideological driving forces of change have actually resulted in a transformation of public employment regimes in Western countries. By analyzing reform processes in energy market regulation, waste collection, and the police in Germany, France, and Sweden, and contrasting these against the implementation of New Public Management in the United Kingdom, the authors show how institutional structures, legal traditions, functional requirements of specific public services, and labour market conditions have influenced the pathways of reform. They demonstrate how public employment regimes have unravelled in different domains of public service, contesting the idea that the state remains a 'good' and 'model' employer.