| Reform is difficult to accomplish. Political science and public administration literature is rife with examples of the barriers that hamper reform. If one would want to reform a policy sector, one could stumble over a number of obstacles, including budgetary obligations (which limits options because there is no money), goals set by outsiders (if Parliament passes a law with new goals for the organisation, the organisation has to use its resources to obtain these goals), the paradigm of the policy sector (which include values that dictate how to achieve goals, how to deal with certain problems and how not to), and reluctant civil servants (who could decide not to implement reform ideas). Despite these many obstacles, reform ? defined in this study as intended fundamental change of the policy and/or administration of a policy sector ? does occur. One way to explain the occurance of reform is crisis: a crisis will lead to a dminishing of barriers (e.g. money becomes available). Consequently, reform can occur. The crisis-reform thesis, however, is still very general. This study investigates three crises that resulted in reform in the Dutch and British Prison Service. The aim of the study is to better understand the crisis-reform process and the factors involved in this process. |
