Architecture of the Public Sector

Civil Service Law & Employment Regimes
Machinery of Government
Center of Government
Subnational Government
Administrative Traditions
Rightsizing Public Administrations

In considering public sector strengths and weaknesses, and assessing options for improvement, it is important to be clear about the formal structure of the public sector. Of course, this is only one element of the puzzle; administrative structures and public employment arrangements cannot be considered in isolation, as they exist in a political environment and serve political as well as functional interests. Changes must be considered in the light of winners and losers and who wants what. Technical public expenditure arrangements and the structure of budgetary institutions (see Public Finance On-Line), the legal arrangements and nature of inter-governmental relations between central and subnational governments (see Legal Institutions of the Market Economy and Decentralization) are all essential to understanding why public administration works the way that it does.

This section first examines civil service law and employment regimes, noting that the public sector is a dense legal environment, with some crucial distinctions between employment and contractual arrangements in different areas. Machinery of government refers to the structure of government and the allocation of functions to Departments and Ministries. The page sets out the range of approaches visible internationally. The page on the center of government provides insights and useful links in two areas. First, it sets out some of the policy management arrangements at the center of government. Then, it provides some approaches for understanding the work of the "central agencies" – the group of organizations at the center of government that do not directly provide services or economic regulation. Subnational government reviews the institutional arrangements that characterize the separation and relationships between central and subnational civil services. Finally, a page on administrative traditions indicates the basic legal and structural distinctions between the major state traditions across the world, reviewing the impact of legal and constitutional distinctions on the shape of administrative structures and employment arrangements.