Connecting Administrative Law and Public Sector Reform

Connecting Administrative Law and Public Sector Reform is a project about the interaction between PA service delivery reform and its legal framing. According to the traditionally dominant Weberian State model (as is), public administration is organized in a hierarchical way and works according to its own traditional (public) administrative law (as opposed to private law). Due to the introduction of New Public Management (market driven) and New Public Governance (network driven) reforms, this traditional paradigm is outdated. These reforms, involving a move towards privatization and contractualization of the public sector and its service delivery, have blurred the traditional public-private divide. This results in tensions and contradictions within and between public administration and administrative law. Using an innovative methodology, referred to as the sequential problem/solution approach, the project describes and explains the mechanisms of shifts, interactions and implications between PA service delivery reform and legal framing in order to anticipate a new administrative law frame (to be).

Keywords:Public Sector, Administrative Law

Disciplines:Law