This edited volume provides a critical and international analysis of the public sector through theoretical debates, empirical issues and regional studies. It begins by reassessing the public choice theoretical paradigm, the implications of New Public Management, the current crisis of democracy and ways of mediating market pressures. It then investigates recent developments in ethics, service provision, industrial relations and the nature of work, before examining critical issues in countries and regions from both the developed and developing world, and reflecting on the way forward. BRUCE BAKER Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the African Studies Centre at Coventry University, UK PATRICK BOND Political Economist and Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand Graduate School of Public and Development Management in Johannesburg, South Africa ROBERT GREGORY Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration in the School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand JENNY HARROW Professor of Voluntary Sector Management, Cass Business School, City University PAUL HIGGINS Lecturer in Public Sector Management and Employee Relations at Middlesex University Business School, UK J. ROGERS HOLLINGSWORTH Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Wisconsin, USA JONTHAN LIU Professor of Chinese Management at Middlesex University Business School, UK ZSUZSANNA LONTI Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand RONALDO MUNCK Professor of Poli tical Sociology and Director of the Globalization and Social Exclusion Unit at the University of Liverpool, UK ANIL VERMA Professor of Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management at the University of Toronto, Canada AXEL VAN DEN BERG Professor of Sociology at McGill University, Canada MALCOLM WALLIS Professor of Public Administration at the Durban Institute for Technology, South Africa JANE WANG Senior Administrator for the Study Tours Programme at Middlesex University Business School, UK