Public sector reform and the re‐legitimation of public bureaucratic power

Argues that from the 1980s onwards, the Hong Kong Government has initiated a series of reforms within the civil service which eventually have been subsumed within a programme of public sector reform. The key features of these reforms are not dissimilar from the style of reform espoused within “new public management” (NPM) ideology. Argues that, despite attempts to adopt NPM ideology with regard to public sector reform, Hong Kong’s reforms do not share the same institutional reform logic as those of NPM. Suggests a political discourse of NPM‐based public sector reform which places the re‐legitimation of bureaucratic power as the key to understanding the reform process.