Recommendations for reform aimed at improving the economy and efficiency of government
operations occur with relative frequency in countries around the world. In the
recent past, many of these proposals have focused on civil service practices and have
sought to relax merit system rules and decentralize public personnel management
operations. Interest in these kinds of reforms began to emerge in the late 1970s as a
reaction to the inflexibility of traditional civil service structures and the constraints
those systems placed on managerial discretion in such core areas as hiring, placement,
compensation, and discipline. Reform efforts continued through the 1990s and into the