Reinvention and retrenchment

Lessons from the application of the New Zealand model to Alberta, Canada

Bibliographic Data

ID11680262
AuthorsHerman M Schwartz, Herman Schwartz (0000-0002-5571-3644, University of Virginia, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume16
Issue3
Pages405-422
Publication date1997-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Policy Analysis and Management (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0276-8739 • E-ISSN: 1520-6688
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/(sici)1520-6688(199722)16:3<405::aid-pam3>3.0.co;2-l
OpenAlexW2161358695
LanguageEN
Citations received9

Is New Zealand a model for “reinventing” government and cutting spending? The government of Alberta, Canada, consciously replicated significant elements of the New Zealand model to attain fiscal balance and public sector reorganization, including the core element of restructuring institutions to change individual behavior. Despite broad similarities in policy content and outcome, differences in the specific content of policy and the politics of policy implementation led to differences in the sustainability of reform and the location of budget cuts. Alberta's Progressive Conservative party emphasized expenditure cuts where both the New Zealand Labour and National parties emphasized government reorganization and the introduction of market mechanisms. Contrasting these efforts to balance budgets and reinvent government suggests that there is considerable variation in the “model,” and that left governments in general are probably more likely to pursue and succeed at the reinvention of government, while stinting fiscal balance. Right governments, on the other hand, are more likely to achieve short-run fiscal balance at the expense of successful reinvention. In turn this suggests that while the partisan orientation of the reforming party matters, neither has an ideal policy mix for long-term fiscal stability. Alternation of governments may provide the best policy mix

Balance (ability · Economic growth · Economic policy · Economics · Fiscal policy · Fiscal sustainability · Government (linguistics · Macroeconomics · Political science · Politics · Public economics · Public policy · Restructuring · Retrenchment · Canadian Policy and Governance · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Finance · Public Administration

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