Book Release – Frontiers of Governance

In a new book – Frontiers of Governance. The OECD and Global Public Management Reform (Palgrave, 2012) – Leslie Pal, Chancellor’s Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, shows why the study of the OECD is indispensable for an understanding of networked governance.

Public sector reform, public management and public governance have become crucial issues since the financial crisis in 2008, but they have been on national as well as global policy agendas for at least fifty years. The OECD has been key to the development of these agendas, but its role and impact have never been explored closely. In this book, Leslie Pal examines the role of the OECD and of global policy networks around public sector reform. Based on extensive interviews and internal documents, the book shows how public management emerged as a policy field within the OECD, explores the tools that the organization uses to achieve its ends, and provides an analysis of what ‘good governance’ means to the OECD, and hence a large part of the world. It provides one of the closest analyses of how an international governmental organization actually works, and how it contributes to a web of global governance.

‘Frontiers of Governance is a singular contribution to our understanding of the inner workings and outer influence of the OECD, particularly in terms of the organization’s role in public management reform, public policy development, and governance issues around the world.’

- Jocelyne Bourgon, President of Public Governance International, former Clerk of the Privy Council, Canada, former Permanent Representative to the OECD, Delegation of Canada.