themselves that their reforms are significant, well-intentioned and likely to produce a variety of improvements. Departments produce practical guidelines to help their staffs implement change (e.g.HM Treasury 1992). The promotional documents are intended to persuade, and,accordingly, they tend to be heavily freighted with rhetoric and rather light on self-criticsm (e.g. OECD 1995;Gore1996, 1997; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1997; Chancellor of the Exchequer 1998;Prime Minister and the Cabinet Office 1999). Consultants and other advisers are also either promotional or how-to-do-it- Often they are selling their systems (re- engineering, TQM, benchmarking or whatever) and ultimately they are all selling their services to governments,public agencies and corporations. The how-to-do-it guides are more down-to-earth than glossy official reports and White Papers,but they too (necessarily and understandably) assume that success os possible and that, if staff follow the good advice,officially promulgated goals will be reached.