Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations and Acronyms -- Executive Summary -- 1. The Countries Selected -- 2. Reformers' Concerns: What Was Broken? -- What Did They Want to Do? -- Reducing Public Expenditure -- Improving Policy Responsiveness and Implementation -- Improving Government as Employer -- Improving Service Delivery and Building Public and Private Sector Confidence -- Mapping Reformers' Concerns -- Notes -- 3. Reformers' Activities: What Did They Do? -- The General Picture -- The Ingredients of Public Sector Reform -- "Basic" Reforms: Achieving or Strengthening Discipline -- "Advanced" Reforms -- Choices in Advanced Reforms -- Coherence of Reforms -- The Level of Reform Activity -- Notes -- 4. Reformers' Achievements: What Did They Gain? -- Results Are Difficult to Determine -- Reductions in Public Expenditure -- Efficiency Improvements -- Other Gains -- Unintended Consequences -- Notes -- 5. Reformers' Traction: Why Did They Do Different Things? -- A Model for Explaining Reform Activities -- Points of Leverage -- Institutional Malleability -- Mapping Reformers' Traction -- Explaining Patterns of Reform -- Notes -- 6. The Challenge for Low-Traction Reformers: How to Achieve Basic Reforms -- A Dilemma Facing Low-Traction Reformers -- Seizing Opportunities in Basic Public Expenditure Management Reforms -- Seizing Opportunities in Civil Service Personnel Management Reforms -- Seizing Opportunities in Reforming the Organizational Structure of the Executive -- Seizing Opportunities in Changing the Role and Policy Load Carried by Government -- Lessons from Low-Traction Countries Needing Basic Reforms -- 7. Implications for the Russian Federation -- Realism and Managed Expectations -- First Things First -- Create More Traction -- Seize Opportunities -- Create Opportunities -- In Looking for Useful Experiences, Look for the Like-Minded.

Notes -- Appendixes -- A. Summaries of Individual Country Reform Experiences -- B. Reformers' Concerns: Methodological Note -- C. Points of Leverage for Reformers: Methodological Note -- D. Institutional Malleability: Methodological Note -- E. Glossary -- References -- Index -- Boxes -- 1. Australian Reform Concerns -- 2. Reform Activities in China -- 3. Reform Activities in Canada -- 4. Associating Performance Information with the Budget in the United States -- 5. Senior Executive Services in Australia, Hungary, and New Zealand -- 6. Advanced Accounting Reforms in the Netherlands -- 7. Budget Reform Activities in Finland -- 8. The Civil Service in New Zealand-An Unusual Case -- 9. Reform Activities in Brazil -- 10. Decentralization in Poland -- 11. Contractual Arrangements within the U.K. Public Sector -- 12. Reform Activities in Chile -- 13. Australian Reform Activities -- 14. Program Review in Canada -- 15. Mixed Signals on Australian Efficiency Savings -- 16. Mixed Reform Outcomes in the United Kingdom -- 17. Unintended Consequences in the Netherlands -- 18. Reform Management in New Zealand and the Republic of Korea -- 19. Dispersed Reform Management in Canada -- 20. Stronger Central Agency in Finland -- 21. Cabinet Office in Australia -- 22. Majority Government in Canada -- 23. Organizational Heterogeneity in Brazil -- 24. Federalism in Canada -- 25. The Civil Service and the German Administrative Tradition -- Tables -- 1. Size of the Country and the Economy Relative to the Russian Federation -- 2. Fiscal Decentralization -- 3. Measures of Governance -- 4. Reformers' Concerns -- 5. The Elements of Basic and Advanced Reforms -- 6. Reform Activities -- 7. Reformers' Traction -- Figures -- 1. General Government Employment as Percentage of Total Employment -- 2. Breadth of Reformers' Concerns -- 3. Two Stages in Public Sector Reform.

4. Overall Reform Activity -- 5. A Model for Explaining Reform Differences -- 6. Reformers' Traction and Reform Activity -- 7. Russia's Reformers in Context.