Introduction

This section of the Handbook highlights the issues associated with administering public services in societies undergoing economic and political reform. Although such reforms tend to be ongoing in all regions of the world, including industrial societies, their implications and outcomes differ from region to region largely because of differential legacies of state-society relations. They differ also among countries within a single region. Thus, it is important to point out from the outset that the authors in this section are understandably unable to cover everything. We have made a decision to try to capture the essence of what has occurred in each region in recent years and wherever appropriate point out some of ...