Varieties of new public management or alternative models? The reform of public service employment relations in industrialized democracies

The article analyses the regulation of public service employment relations in 10 industrialized democracies, in the light of the New Public Management approach. It refutes the proposition that reforms indicate convergence towards an NPM model and argues that the 'varieties of NPM' thesis is also unconvincing. Several reform trajectories exist to modernise public service employment relations, but these highlight the existence of alternative models rather than a shift towards NPM or even the emergence of a variety of NPM.