Improving Public Service Delivery comprises ten linked parts. These are as follows: After summarising the paper's structure, Part One outlines the scope of the current study, its purposeand terms of reference.
In Part Two, some key definitional and conceptual issues are introduced and discussed because they are fundamental to the understanding of efforts to improve public service delivery systems. Important distinctions are made between the factors influencing the delivery of services in the public and private sectors.
Within this context, Part Three draws upon previous research evidence, including that based on comparative crossnational studies, to define and discuss some of the most frequently used terms for different types of users of public services: namely clients, customers, consumers and citizens. These differences in terminology are then explored, as well as their important implications for serviceprovider relationships, and used to develop a broad conceptual framework for the systematic analysis of the development and implementation of improved service delivery systems.