Deficiency in innovation in the public sector

Incidence

Although member states of the European Community have demonstrated much innovation capacity, this capacity lies behind escalating needs. The situation is aggravated because of constraints on innovation, such as the need for contraction of government activities and reduction in the size of public organizations.

Claim

Actual innovative capacities in the public sector, to the extent that it can be evaluated, vary a great deal between countries and between agencies within a country. But organization theory, historical studies and comparative investigations converge in finding that most public sector organizations have inbuilt tendencies towards incrementalism, seldom developing and pushing innovative policy paradigms.