<title>Abstract</title> We argue that there are four main dimensions, or faces, of public service efficiency, which should matter to theorists and practitioners of public management. The first, <italic>productive efficiency</italic>, relates to the maximization of outputs over inputs; the second, <italic>allocative efficiency</italic>, refers...

Introduction -- Bureaucracy and public management -- Autonomy and public management -- Marketisation and public management -- Collaboration and public management -- Changing agendas of public management research.

Governments increasingly see partnerships as their delivery instrument of choice. There is disagreement, however, about how the proliferation of these institutions should be understood. One interpretation sees ungovernability, instability and unaccountability in the fragmented institutions of...