Based on an evaluation of the first experiences of the 1993 pu-blic management reform, this essay explores two different pro-blems. The first relates to the undergoing division of public mana¬gement into two different categories: on the one hand the top-level management of the Ministries and the other national public admini-strations, which still maintain a public status; on the other, the base management of the Ministries and the other national public admini-strations and the management of all other non-State public admini-strations (such as local governments, National Health Service etc.), the status of which has been privatised. The second profile relates to the problematic nature of the relationship between top-level and base management, the terms of which are not well defined by the 1993 reform. The author characterizes this ambiguity as a positive element, to the extent that it allows a flexible interpretation of the top-level/base management relationships, which are not to be ne-cessarily understood in hierarchical terms only.