Unanswered questions in service provision for modernizing states

In ‘Innovations in the provision of public goods and services’ (Pinto, R. (1998). Public Administration and Development, 18 (4): 387–397), Pinto contributes to the ongoing policy debate on service provision in two important ways. First, he points out that service provision reform is a complex, evolutionary process that is at once political and economic. Second, he argues that public management and administration, rather than becoming obsolete, will have to become more naunced and refined as governments increasingly allow private sector and citizen participation in the delivery of services. Both these propositions could be further developed by acknowledging the ongoing redefinition of what makes services ‘public’. Governments in developing countries will successfully redefine the ‘public’ character of services only when they resolve the enduring trade-offs between efficient delivery and distributive justice, between the roles of citizen and consumer. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.