Generally, the creed of the reform movement has
been to redraw the boundaries of state activities to
downsize the public sector, to unleash market forces,
and to accord more weight to private-sector parties
in rendering public services. Although privatization
and deregulation are widely considered hallmarks of
recent projects of public-sector modernization, the
starting positions, underlying reform strategies, as
well as the nature and sequence of reform steps, differ
considerably across national boundaries. In spite of
the downsizing rhetoric and the decrease in state own-
ership, the overall range and scope of state activities
have remained on relatively high levels, and new
forms of state intervention, such as reregulation as a
consequence of privatization, seem to be on the rise.