TWO MYTHS OF CONVERGENCE IN PUBLIC MANAGEMENT REFORM

The literature on public management reform exhibits two intertwined convergence myths. First, a world‐wide consensus on a new public management (NPM) reform agenda is seen to exist amongst policy reformers and practitioners. If this agenda is not fully implemented in all cases, this is generally explained by political and reform setbacks rather than disagreement on policy aims. Second, this NPM agenda is now seen as challenged and even abandoned and replaced by an emergent post‐NPM or ‘public value leadership’ agenda and/or policy paradigm. We show the NPM convergence is overstated, with a remarkable resilience of existing institutions, and a diversity of public management systems. On the other hand, even within NPM exemplars that have putatively now adopted a post‐NPM agenda, there is debate to what degree NPM has been abandoned, and over the novelty, coherence and resilience of the post‐NPM agenda. Divergence and contextual variation prevail. The role of myth in policy reform is further examined.     

The Strange Birth of Middle England

This article investigates the political meanings of a now ubiquitous media term 'middle England'. It explores its origins in the historical idea of the middle classes as politically moderate, beleaguered and put-upon; and more recently in a neo-conservative, anti-elitist populism, which aims to short-circuit traditional political processes and speak directly to a nominally homogeneous, but actually carefully targeted, 'people'. It argues that the concept of 'middle England' reached full political maturity in the 1990s when increasingly slick party machines began to articulate and exploit these ideas through private polling and focus groups which concentrated on crucial swing voters. 'Middle England' is a product of the increasingly close, but fractious, relationship between these party machines and influential tabloid newspapers, particularly the Daily Mail .     

BUYER-SUPPLIER PARTNERING IN UK DEFENCE PROCUREMENT: LOOKING BEYOND THE POLICY RHETORIC

This article looks beyond the rhetoric in recent UK defence procurement policy to discuss factors that might impact on the practical implementation of buyer-supplier partnering. Various explanations of the difficulty of creating a partnership are identified. The principal explanation explored is that the likelihood of successful partnering is a function of the power relation between a buyer and a supplier. It is argued that partnering is most likely to occur under circumstances of interdependence when each party is highly dependent upon and vulnerable to the other. A case study from naval shipbuilding is used to examine the plausibility of this power explanation. None of the power relations in the supply network discussed is primarily characterized by interdependence and there is no evidence of partnering. This suggests that while the MoD and its suppliers may use the language of partnering, they often find it difficult to translate this into meaningful action.     

SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND ARRESTS Variations in Pretreatment Arrests of Clients in Drug Treatment Programs

This study examines variations in pretreatment arrest patterns of clients admitted to federally funded drug treatment programs. Data from published annual reports of the Client Oriented Data Acquisition Process (CODAP)-the nationol monitoring system of drug abuse treatment-are used. Variations based on sex and age are found, but not for race. The type of drug abuse was associated with differential arrest patterns. The results suggested that cocaine and hallucinogen users were more likely to have been arrested of the ten categories of drug users considered     

COMPULSORY COMPETITIVE TENDERING IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: THE FIRST ROUND

This article presents the results of a survey of the initial impact of compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) under the Local Government Act 1988. After an outline of the provisions of the legislation and the mechanisms for their implementation the outcome of the first round of CCT is described. While most services have been retained in the public sector, a number of authorities have chosen to use private contractors. Differences in the patterns between different types of authority are examined. Finally, the paper considers the prospects for subsequent phases of CCT.     

CHINATOWN'S IMMIGRANT GANGS

The rise of Chinese youth gangs in urban centers in North America is a social phenomenon that has gained prominence in the past decade and a half. This study examines the characteristics and processes of four gangs operating in the Chinatown of Vancouver, Canada, over a three-year period (1975-1978). The gangs were composed entirely of teenaged immigrants recently arrived from Hong Kong who were engaged in a wide variety of antisocial and criminal behaviors. Three sociocultural antecendents are identified as important in the development of Chinese youth gangs: (1) the weakening among many Hong Kong immigrants of the traditional Chinese pattern of close parental guidance and supervision; (2) the resultant emergence of youth peer-groups who challenge parental authority and Chinese values; (3) the strong attraction of North American success symbols for gang members, and their perceived inability to achieve success through legitimate means because of difficulties in learning English.