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Savoie considers the war of reform waged by the leaders of these major industrial countries. Reagan declared that he had come to Washington to "drain the swamp" of bureaucracy, and set up the Grace Commission to investigate the operation of the U.S. government. Thatcher and Mulroney were equally committed to reform and initiated wide-ranging changes. By the end of the 1990s, the changes were dramatic. Many governments operations had been privatized in all three countries, and new management techniques had been introduced. In Great Britain, one observer judged that the changes were historically as important as the collapse of Keynesian economics. Is government now better in these countries, and was political leadership right in focusing on management of the bureaucracy as the villain? Savoie suggests that the reforms overlooked problems now urgently requiring attention and, at the same time, attempted to address non-existent problems. He combines theory and research based on sixty-two interviews, nearly all with members of the executive branch of the governments of Britain, Canada and the United States.

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CHOICE Review

The author examines the impact of the views and actions of the political leaders in Britain, the US, and Canada in the 1980s. All three leaders were conservatives who regarded their civil services as inefficient and partly responsible for economic problems, and who were committed in their different ways to reducing the scope of government and the size of the public sector. Savoie reviews briefly some academic theories of public administration and executive leadership, and considers key factors that have shaped the three public services. Based on interviews with senior civil servants as well as cabinet ministers, he examines the planning and implementation of reforms in the civil service, especially in the introduction of privatization, deregulation, cutbacks of government programs, use of private sector management practices in government, and restructuring government machinery. Savoie concludes that the changes had far-reaching consequences; they redefined bureaucracies and the relationship of public servants with elected officials. A useful book for upper-division undergraduates and graduate students. M. Curtis; Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick

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Donald J. Savoie holds a Canada Research Chair in Public Administration and Governance at the Universite de Moncton.