A persistent ideal of public services networks amid alternative reform strategies: A study over three decades

This article analyses how public service networks have evolved over three decades amid alternative reform strategies based on hierarchy or market principles. The longitudinal study of social and employment services in the Netherlands, based on 186 documents and 137 interviews, reveals an intriguing pattern of network rise and fall, repeating over time, with alternative reform strategies being crucial in network dissolution. This study contributes to understanding network evolution through external rather than internal factors. It shows a persistent network ideal, but depicts the ‘old’, traditional governance model as more robust than is usually presented in the public management literature.