Summary:

An active administrative policy involves intentional efforts to change public policy through
changing the structure, processes, or personnel of public sector organizations. An active
administrative policy assumes that the organizational form to be used is open to choice, that
there are unambiguous goals and a tight coupling between ends and means, that different
organizational forms have different effects, and that there are criteria that may be used to assess
those effects. This paper focuses on the fulfillment of these preconditions in the three national
contexts in order to determine the relevance of a transformative perspective on administrative
change. We examine what impact constraints a) polity features, b) the historical-institutional
tradition, and c) external pressure through popular international administrative doctrines like
New Public Management ideas and financial crises, have on the possibilities to enhance an
active national administrative policy.