Politics and public service reform in small states: Malta

Administrative reform is inseparable from political reform, just as administration and politics share overlapping boundaries. This article reviews the goals for reform established in 1989 for the Maltese public service, against the political culture and administrative history of Malta. It argues that a small state's size encourages certain dysfunctional characteristics of the political culture, and aggravates the difficulties inherent in administrative reform. (© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)