IDPM Archived Publications
Public Policy and Management Working Papers
Please note : this working paper is part of a series that has been discontinued and archived .
Should Flawed Models of Public Management be Exported? Issues and Practices
Charles Polidano
Abstract
In the past two decades there has been an unprecedented wave of reforms as the traditional model of public administration has come under attack. These reforms originated in developed industrial economies, whose political leaders were under pressure to keep down levels of public taxation and expenditure, while maintaining high levels of welfare and other public services (Manning 1996). A significant feature of the reforms was the belief that the state had become too large and overcommitted, and that the market offered superior mechanisms for achieving the efficient supply of goods and services (World Bank, 1996, 1997).
As the reform movement has spread (through globalising processes which are considered below), reformers are being faced with a choice between competing concepts of the state; this is often expressed as a choice between 'old' public administration and 'new' public management (Dunleavy and Hood, 1994), with the additional dimension that the state is also expected to be responsible for the effective management of social and economic development, or 'development management' (World Bank, 1997).
The applicability of these different models of the state, and the question whether a new global paradigm of public management is emerging, are matters of considerable debate and dispute, which should be no great surprise given the intense 23 September, 2004 The purpose of this chapter is to present a critical account of the origins and nature of 'new public management', illustrated from the British system which has been its most committed advocate, with supporting material from other developed economies. An attempt will be made to evaluate the practice of these reforms by reference to British experience. The chapter then ends with a consideration of issues related to efforts to transfer the NPM reform model to developing and transitional economies.
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