This book investigates the structural and institutional variables that determine the varying degrees of implementation of new managerialist reforms across different national governments. Denis Saint-Martin, a scholar in public policy and administration, utilizes a comparative framework to analyze how state receptivity to external expertise influences policy outcomes. By examining the intersection of political institutions and the management consultancy industry, the author argues that the radicalism of public sector reform is contingent upon the existing permeability of the state to private sector knowledge.

Experts in public administration recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of policy transfer and the professionalization of government reform. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the rigorous comparative methodology employed by the author.