The last decades a transformation of the public sector under the label of New

Public Management was seen. NPM was especially supported for its novel

ideas on including private sector practices, such as performance management, in

the delivery of public sector services and for its idea to substitute the public sector

by the private sector. With the benefit of hindsight one can conclude now that the

success rates of such reforms varied.

Whether the role of government and its strength is really determinative in shaping

optimal models for service delivery is one of the main questions in the current debate

and is also one of the reasons for inviting a number of scholars from countries in

transition, that is, outside the usual realm of investigation, to tell about and analyze

the developments in this regard in their home-countries.

First of all, these are scholars from the so-called BRICS-countries, that strange

group of nation-states, from several parts of the world of which the first letters of

their names constitute the world BRICS, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and

South Africa. Secondly, scholars from Central and Eastern Europe were invited to

write about the experiences in their countries.

The central question these scholars focus on is how two New Public Management

Tools evolved in their countries, that is, performance management and involving

the private sector in previously public service delivery and what problems these

countries encountered.