FUTURE TRAJECTORIES
The emerging CPA paradigm consists of four future trajectories, or "tracks." First, the regional track refers to the practice of scholars from the same regions who form themselves into research groups that conduct comparative studies on administrative reform. For example, European scholars compare the governance reform experiences of European countries. The most active groups are those based in Western Europe, such as the European Group for Public Administration. Other groups include scholars from the Commonwealth nations, the Eastern Europe group through NISCAPee, the OECD group, and Spanish- speaking groups through such organizations as Crosscultural, Language, and Academic Development. The most important reason for the success of regional groups, besides funding, is a common language. Regions where member countries use different languages find it very difficult to conduct comparative research on administrative reform.
In the case of large countries like the United States and China, one may ask whether comparative studies of American states and Chinese regions can be included in the domain of comparative public administration. Recent examples of the regional track include a comparison of managerial reforms in Europe and the United States (Gualmini 2008), a comparison of the public-sector
innovations in eight European countries (Vigoda-Gadot et al. 2008), and a discussion of developing countries in the Commonwealth in terms of their experiences in imitating the public-sector reforms of developed countries (Laking and Norman 2007