Transforming the Public Sector

Abstract

This chapter historicizes post-2008 reforms by summarizing the New Public Management (NPM) ideals and forms of public sector restructuring that first began to emerge in the 1980s. This is then followed by national snapshots of state restructuring up to 2008 and the relevant austerity packages implicating the public sector (employment and programmes) after 2008. While each country has its own story to tell, several varieties of austerity in relation to public sector restructuring after the global financial crisis are discernible. Austerity-era transformations within the public sector involved new institutions forcing restructuring, exposing many public sector workers but insulating a few areas (primarily those responsible for economic decision making and associated with privatization), along with the insinuation of public sector flaws inherent to NPM ideology. Some of the negative effects of these strategies became glaringly apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic.