Modernizing civil services - an era of reform localism and exceptualism - comparing public sector reforms in European and Westminister systems protecting liberty and benefiting society - can market-based administrative reforms and market-based political institutions effectively co-exist in the USA? modernization as Europeanization - the impact of the European Union on public administration executive agencies and "modernizing government" devolution, integration and modernization in the United Kingdom civil service modernization and civil service accountability - the case of Scottish devolution implementation of the Human Rights Act 1998 in the Lord Chancellor's Department modernizing policy-making for the 21st century - the professional model civil society, virtue, trust - implications for the public service ethos in the age of modernity.