A structural fit between states and markets? Public administration regimes and market economy models in the OECD

This article examines the relationship between public administration regimes and market economy models in 20 member countries from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Building on Pollitt and Bouckaert's (2004) description of politico-administrative regimes, we compile a data set of cross-national public administration indicators to explore public employment and politico-administrative regulation. Our explorative statistical analysis identifies three distinct public administration regimes: an Anglo-American, a French/German and a Scandinavian regime. The Anglo-American and French/German regimes show, especially with regard to public employment regulation, a high degree of institutional coherence with the co-ordination rules applying to the market economy. Findings for the Scandinavian administration regime do not support the institutional coherence argument, which leads us to conclude that the legal origin of a country may play an important role in linking and synchronizing the mode of regulation in the public and private spheres of the political economy.