Reform beyond the crisis
A large body of research on policy reform suggests that crises can create significant opportunities to reform, both by demonstrating the unsustainability of the status quo and by disrupting the interest coalitions that resisted reform in the past. The analysis conducted as part of the OECD’s project on “Making Reform Happen” (MRH) broadly confirms this link between crisis and reform. This paper discusses how governments can “seize the moment” of the economic crisis to suggest and implement structural reforms. It examines the particular challenges to reform – and possible solutions to those challenges – in several distinct policy areas, namely the labour market, product markets, retirement, education, healthcare, taxes and the environment. It also offers an analysis of how to “reform the reformers”, or how to change the way public administrations do their work.
Long abstract