%0 Journal Article
%T The European public sectors in the age of managerialism
%A Ewan Ferlie
%A Giovanni Esposito
%A Giuseppe Lucio Gaeta
%J Politics
%@ 1467-9256
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0263395717727253
%X During the past 50£¿years, European public sectors have undergone a profound process of organizational change, where managerial tools and principles from the private sector have permeated through governments and administrations of many countries. A substantial amount of academic literature has now been devoted to public management reforms. Many scholars have associated them with the diffusion of a managerialist ideology. However, the relationship between public management reforms, political ideology, and public expressions of support for these reforms by political parties has been a relatively under-explored topic within the literature and is the gap we address in this article. Using a longitudinal framework of study, our analysis shows how issues surrounding managerialist reforms have evolved across the electoral manifestos of European parties during the past 50£¿years. Our findings reveal that these reforms have enjoyed a growing political profile over time in many countries within Western and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, we also examine and discuss the differences and similarities of these reforms across countries
%K electoral programme
%K managerialism
%K New Public Management
%K party manifestos
%K public sector reform
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0263395717727253