Insightful and comprehensive and covering new subjects like globalization and IT, this text, international in approach, provides a thorough introduction to the key phases of the contracting process and the skills required by managers in its implementation. These include: policy for contracting; strategic purchasing; understanding markets; communicating the contracting decision; designing and drafting the contract; the role of the consumer; and the regulation of service provision. Illustrated throughout with practitioner case-studies from a range of OECD countries, the book presents an important new theoretical 'contract management model' and a mature contract model, and explores the mechanisms, formal rules and informal norms that influence the way governments contract for public services. This book is essential reading for all students of public management and all public service managers.