The costly retirement of 76 million US baby boomers will swell the ranks of the elderly to more than 20 percent of the population of the United States during the next 20 years. In Europe and Japan, the elderly will come to account for more than 30 percent of the population during the same period. This transformation is about to create a new sense of urgency to get the most from every government dollar. Public services beyond health care and pensions for seniors will face epic squeezes, and officials will struggle to balance the needs of retirees and younger citizens while still holding taxes to politically acceptable levels. Boosting the government's performance will be an imperative no country can ignore.

To be sure, attempts have been made before. In the United States, former Vice President Al Gore's efforts to "reinvent government" in the early 1990s scored some successes. The administration of President George W. Bush has made efforts to reform civil service rules that inhibit some sensible management practices. The Government Accountability Office (formerly the General Accounting Office) has shown perennial leadership in prodding government departments to address their management challenges. In the United Kingdom, Peter Gershon's recent review of...