Sum Up
•Using market principles, and private sector management styles to make public sector more efficient,
economic, and effective is core theme of NPM
•Rising inflation and taxes, bloated govt. budget, and perception of inefficient bureaucracy, red tape, and
unaccountability led to NPM movement in 1980s and 1990s-mainly in UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada
•New Right movement in USA and UK, Libertarian Ideology, 2
nd
Minnow Brook conference, and ‘Re-inventing
Government’ by David Osborneand Ted Gaebleralso helped in NPM evolution
•Features of NPM: Politics-administration separation, policy making-program execution separation,
Entrepreneurial spirit, Performance measurement, contracting out, PPP, public services by pvt.Sector,
competition, citizen as customer, Decentralization, Autonomy, and Empowerment
•Pluses: NPM made govt leaner, efficient, cost conscious, and citizen centered. It infused new, innovative
managerial practices in PSUs. Allowed pvt.Sector join govt in providing public services. Performance
measurement, program evaluation, and audit made public manager more accountable
•Minuses: excessive reliance on pvt.Sector management practices and narrow focus on economic objectives
in NPM diluted ‘publicness’ and ‘public spiritedness’ of public administration. NPM faired poorly on equity,
fairness, justice, and public accountability criteria. It undermined ‘collective public value’, transparency, and
participatory govt.
•Today, NPM is largely discarded, overtaken by newer ideas such as new public service, and new public
governance. PA today is trying to regain its ‘publicness’ and uniqueness by going back to its root of normative
political philosophy.