The papers in this volume focus on the broad issues of public sector reform. They address issue-oriented and comparative research such as: analysis of civil service systems at the theoretical level; reforming the wing of national level governments; the wave of public sector reform that has swept the West over the past fifteen years; a comparison of two recent programs to improve efficiency and legitimacy of government in the US and the Netherlands; the problems of insufficient capacity in managing the public sector; the impediments in the current system of public sector job evaluation in the US; the shortcomings in managerial capacities that currently trouble the European Union; Nicaragua and its struggle for public sector reform; the history of Egyptian civil service; and the development of the Argentine civil service.