NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

1. NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Per Lægreid Department of Administration and Organization Theory University of Bergen Kathmandu 5.1 2007 Per Lægreid

2. THE OUTLINE • What is Administrative Policy and New Public Management? • What has happened? • Why has it happened? • What have the results been? • Towards post NPM? • What should be done? Per Lægreid

3. ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY • Internal focus, infrastructure, indirect • Intentional efforts by central political-administrative actors to alter public policy by changing: • Organizational structures • Processes, procedures • Personnel Per Lægreid

4. WHAT IS NPM? • The primacy of economic norms, efficiency • The hybrid character of NPM • Economic organization theory • Centralization • Contractualism • “Make the managers manage” • Managerialism • Decentralization • Devolution • “Let the managers manage” Per Lægreid

5. KEY ELEMENTS OF NPM • From input and process to output and outcome • More measurement and quantification • Single-purpose organizations • Autonomization • Governance by contract • Market arrangements • Service quality • Blurring the public-private sectors • Private sector management practice • Cost cutting Per Lægreid

6. WHAT HAS HAPPENED?Reflections • Distinguish between reform and change • Success histories, strategies, decisions, announcements or implementation • Visions, talks and rhetoric or practice and actions • Normative and persuasive or accurate descriptions Per Lægreid

7. REFORM AND CHANGE Per Lægreid

8. NPM: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE Per Lægreid

9. REFORM STRATEGIES • Maintaining • Modernizing • Marketizers • Minimal state Per Lægreid

10. TRAJECTORY OF REFORM • Divergence more than convergence • Talk • Decisions • Implementation • Result Per Lægreid

11. WHY HAVE REFORMS HAPPENED? • The optimistic position • The fatalistic position • The cynical position • The realistic position Per Lægreid

12. DRIVING FORCES FOR REFORMS • External pressure • Historical institutional context • Polity features Per Lægreid

13. A TRANSFORMATIVE PERSPECITVE • A complex mix of: • external pressure • national structure • cultural context • Editing, filtering, interpretation, translation, modification Per Lægreid

14. WHAT HAVE THE RESULTS BEEN? • Little evaluation. The evaluation paradox • Different criteria • Loose links between programs, measures, implementation, practice and effects • Is the nation state the best unit of analysis? • The meaning of reform measures vary • Different stages of reforms, the problem of timing Per Lægreid

15. WHY IS IT DIFFICULT TO MEASURE RESULTS? • Multiple objectives of the reform • Intended or unintended effects • The reform consists of several means • Lack of before and after comparison • The attribution problem • The counter factual problem • The costs of reforms are often not measured • The problem of timing Per Lægreid

16. EFFECT CONCEPTS • A limited concept of effect • Internal administrative effect • Efficiency, administrative control, internal culture • An extended concept of effect • External political effects • Democratic accountability, equity, freedom, transparency Per Lægreid

17. THE NPM HYPHOTESIS • More market, management and corporatization will lead to greater efficiency without negative side effects Per Lægreid

18. POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF NPM Per Lægreid

19. WHAT HAVE THE RESULTS BEEN? • Huge volume of change, a lot of rhetoric • Real changes in practice • Symbolic effects • Negative effects • Efficiency and democratic effects • Political control and accountability Per Lægreid

20. IMPACTS OF NPM - BENEFITS • Savings in specific cases • Process improvements in some cases • Efficiency gains • Effectiveness is difficult to measure • Mixed evidence of cultural change • Difficult to pin down improved capacity/flexibility Per Lægreid

21. IMPACTS OF NPM DISBENEFITS • Responsible for uncontrollable outcome • Over-concentration on quantifiable aspects • Horizontal coordination problems • Accountability problems • Too much regulation and monitoring • Weakening public service ethic Per Lægreid

22. EFFECTS OF NPM • Efficiency • Yes, may be, but transaction costs • Negative side effects? • Political-democratic effects • Better political control? • Changing power relations? • Less equality • More freedom • Stronger responsiveness? Per Lægreid

23. POST-NPM: TOWARDS WHOLE OF GOVERNMENT? • Horizontal and vertical coordination in order to avoid that different policies undermine each other • Better use of resourses, create synergy, offer seamless services • Joined-up government . Blair 1997 • Holistic strategy, integration, ”wicked” issues • Opposite of tunnel vision, vertical silos • Strengthening the centre Per Lægreid

24. WHY WHOLE OF GOVERNMENT? • New Public Management could not deliver • ”Single purpose organizations” and stuctural devolution has weakened political control, problems of fragmentation, capacity and coordination • Not evident that the efficiency of services has improved • Concern about the quality of public services and increasing social inequality Per Lægreid

25. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?Reflections • No single answer – no best way • No scientific answer • Values and norms differ • Different starting points • Reforms produce reforms - dilemmas Per Lægreid

26. MOTIVE AND OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC MANAGEMENT REFORM Per Lægreid

27. LESSONS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES • Context matters • More divergence than convergence • Weak documentations of the impact of NPM • The need for formality, trust, ethical capital and capacity • The need for a sequencing path • The need for balancing autonomy and control Per Lægreid

28. CONCLUSION • The need for an extended concept of effects • Bringing the historical-institutional context back in • How to build professionalism and ethical capital? • How to balance the different public sector norms? Per Lægreid

29. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE? • Don’t borrow fashionable ideas • Use resources. Be patient • Avoid degrading existent strengths • Reforms need leaders and allies • Modify and adopt as you go along • Build in feedback and evaluation • Learn to live with inconsistent goals Per Lægreid

30. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? • Three scenarios: • Linear process • Cyclical process • Dialectical process Per Lægreid