This revised and expanded edition of a benchmark collection compares how civil services around the world have adapted to cope with managing public services in the 21st century. The volume provides insights into multi-level governance, juridification and issues of efficiency and responsiveness as well as exploring the impact of fiscal austerity.

The challenges faced by the public sector are many and varied. Civil services at the forefront of tackling pressing problems in a whole range of areas from climate change to income inequality are being allocated less money to do so. This collection explores how public sectors have adapted to address the demands placed on them in the 21st Century.

The challenges faced by the public sector are many and varied. Civil services at the forefront of tackling pressing problems in a whole range of areas from climate change to income inequality are being allocated less money to do so. This collection explores how public sectors have adapted to address the demands placed on them in the 21st Century.

Is there a future without civil service and civil servants? This volume concludes a large comparative project that started in 1990. The book considers the changes in the past fifteen years, and looks to the challenges facing civil servants in the 21st century: performance, globalization and legitimacy. Given the lack of attention for civil servant "systems"as specifically public sector institutionalized arrangements in a political and societal context, this study fills a clear gap.

The role and position of the civil service as core actors in the public sector has been seriously questioned in recent years. This volume provides a comparative study of civil service systems in Asia, Western Europe and Africa. The cast of international contributors provide new insights.