In our view administrative competence in the modern state is just as important for economic performance as getting the prices right'.. Economic inefficiency can stem from excessive state intervention based upon rigid and non-accountable bureaucratic structures, but, like it or not, no privatisation programme can ever remove the main responsibility for economic management from the state and its administrative apparatuses. This being so, the current over-emphasis on prices in the policy debate has led to a neglect of the associated problem of administrative competence and left us dangerously under-informed about how to achieve the equally essential need for administrative reform.

This issue of the IDS Bulletin, like its predecessors in the public policy area,' has therefore been put together to attempt to draw attention to the distinctively political elements involved in the adjustment process, and to the distinctive contribution which political scientists can make to their better understanding. Briefly, this requires an analysis of two distinct but associated issues - the problem of economic< regulation and of public provision.