In the past two decades, many public jurisdictions and agencies have initiated efforts to increase productivity and to find altemative service-delivery mechanisms based on public-choice assumptions and perspectives. Public managers have concentrated on accountability and high performance and have sought to restructure bureaucratic agencies, redefine organizational missions, streamline agency processes, and decentralize decision making. In many cases, governments and government agencies have succeeded in privatizing previously public functions. Holding top executives accountable for performance goals, establishing new processes for measuring productivity and effectiveness, and reengineering departmental sys-tems to reflect a strengthened commitment to account-ability (Aristigueta 1999; Barzelay 1992; Boston et al.1996; Kearns 1996). The effectiveness of this reform agenda in the United States, as well as in a number of other countries, has put governments around the world on notice that new standards are being sought and new roles established.