This article evaluates the results and impacts of administrative modernization in Germany after more than 10 years of New Public Management experience, concentrating on the most advanced level of public sector reform: local authorities. Drawing on a broad empirical basis, the authors pursue the following questions: Do “Weber‐ ian” administrative structures and processes continue to characterize the German public sector, or have the reforms left behind lasting traces of a managerial administration? Are local authorities performing better today, and if so, can this be attributed to the New Public Management modernization? The presented results show that no paradigm shift from the “Weberian” bureaucracy to New Public Management has occurred so far. Performance improvements notwithstanding, the new mix of steering instruments causes numerous unintended consequences, causing “Weberian” administration to reemerge.

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Th e equal treatment of all citizens is one of the fundamental principles of good administrative practice. Nevertheless, there are growing numbers of media and scientifi c reports on unequal treatment by public administrations. Th is article examines the unequal treatment of citizens by gender and ethnic origin by means of a survey-based fi eld experiment in German local government. With the help of two vignettes and randomized assignment of names, responses to fake citizen requests by local governments are analyzed for speed, quality, and service orientation. Th e results show very limited discrimination eff ects. While there is no evidence for general ethnic discrimination, a more diff erentiated analysis indicates patterns of ethnic discrimination conditioned by gender. Practitioner Points• Field experiments provide a useful tool for testing the responsiveness and discriminatory behavior of administrative units and can be applied to a multitude of tasks and research questions. • Th ese instruments are useful not only for academic research but also for superordinate units or civil society organizations as "watchdogs" of administrative conduct. • Th ere are three basic dimensions of responsiveness-speed, completeness, and service orientation-that are applicable to a wide range of citizens' requests. • Discrimination by public bodies is less a matter of representativeness than of eff ective bureaucratic rule of law and eff ective control mechanisms. • In the German context, the interaction of gender and ethnic origin induces "positive discrimination" when societal stereotypes are challenged.

With the introduction of quasimarket principles in the mid-1990s, the German social service sector faced several challenges from above (the state), within (the organizations), and outside (new competitors and "players"). Within the social services, considerable differences prevail between subsectors; although all reforms have been oriented at the principle of (quasi)markets, the governance arrangements implemented have been rather divergent across subfields. This article compares the effects of the introduction of quasimarket principles in two subfields with very different governance architectures: youth welfare and old-age care. Basic findings include different degrees and variants of hybridity at the meso-level of local welfare arrangements as well as at the micro-level of the organizations in the field. The analysis shows a considerable effect of different governance regimes on the openness of the subfields to new competitors (profit-oriented and voluntary), the reactions of established third sector organizations (internal reforms and hybridization), and the modes of political steering (with varying degrees of informality and oversight).

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