In the last twenty years both the OECD and the countries of Latin America have been preoccupied with a vision of modern techniques of public management which can deliver better, more relevant, and simply more, public services despite tight fiscal constraints. The OECD experience has been held up as a model for Latin America. OECD reforms and the rhetoric surrounding them have had a substantial impact on the discourse and decisions on reform in the countries of the region. It is therefore an appropriate moment to take a fresh look at the OECD experience and what this means for Latin America. This paper looked at the reform experience of the last two decades, first in the OECD, then in Latin America. Considering each group of countries in a structured, parallel, and self-contained way, we first looked at the pre-conditions for reform, second elicited the objectives of reform, third characterized the actual reforms undertaken, and finally made some judgments about the consequences, intended and unintended, of these reforms. The actual reforms undertaken were considered along five technical dimensions: public expenditure management, human resources management, the structure of the public sector, alternative service delivery and demand side reforms.