Challenging New Public Management

1. Challenging New Public Management Neil Collins University College Cork, Ireland n.collins@ucc.ie

2. University College Cork

4. Why bother? • And one should bear in mind that there is nothing more difficult to execute, nor more dubious of success, nor more dangerous to administer than to introduce a new order of things; for he who introduces it has all those who profit from the old order as his enemies, and he has only lukewarm allies in all those who might profit from the new (Machiavelli: 1998: 21).

5. An Era of Change • Late l980s and early 1990s transformation in public sectors • Rigid, hierarchical, bureaucratic form changing to flexible, market-based form • Change role of government in society • Change in relationship between government and citizenry.

6. Traditional public administration • Discredited theoretically and practically • New public management = new paradigm in the public sector.

7. The Changes • Hierarchical, bureaucratic principles • far more diligently, far longer in the public sector. • Direct provision • standard operating procedure. • Political and administrative separate • policy or strategy the preserve of political leadership. • Professional bureaucracy • employed for life, serve any political master equally • New paradigm challenges fundamental principles of public administration

8. Verities challenged • Delivery by bureaucracy is not the only way to provide government goods and services. • Flexible management systems pioneered by the private sector are being adopted by governments. • Governments can operate indirectly. • Political and administrative matters intertwined • Public demands better accountability • Case for unusual employment conditions weaker.

9. New public management: central doctrines • No book but… • focus on management, not policy • performance appraisal and efficiency • disaggregation of public bureaucracies • user-pay relationships • use of quasi-markets and contracting out to foster competition • cost-cutting; output targets; limited-term contracts; monetary’ incentives; freedom to manage.

10. NPM: implies • focus inside the organisation • substantial changes for personnel • Osborne and Gaebler: • government needs to be ‘reinvented’ • bureaucracy neither necessary nor efficient • other means should be used. • “entrepreneurial governments” promote competition between service providers. • pushing control into the community • measure performance by outcomes.

11. NPM: the mission • Redefine clients as customers • Offer choices • Prevent problems before they emerge • Earning money, not simply spending it • Decentralise authority • Participatory management • Preference for market mechanisms • Energising all sectors — public, private and voluntary — to solve their community’s problems.

12. SMI Framework • Delivering Better Government (1996) • Public Service Management Act (1997) • new management structure • to enhance the management, effectiveness and transparency • mechanism for increased accountability of civil servants. • Delivery driven by Implementation Group of Secretaries General • 2002, PA Consulting: • Progress of SMI in the Civil Service.  • Vision Statement, Strategy and Action Programme to 2007 • http://www.bettergov.ie/thematic_areas/smiframework/index.asp?lang=ENG&loc=79

13. Strategic approach: better planning and management schedule of change strategy statements searching self-analysis external evaluations departmental performance indicators and other forms of assessment. Many civil servants enthusiastic; many reluctant. SMI

14. Republic’s political system as other lib dem. facilitates translation needs into political action: material, ideological, social, spiritual dimensions. Neat sequential processing model recognises peoples’ needs provides alternative ways of meeting them chooses between options sets up mechanisms to implement the solution. Politics as a system: injustice to complexity NPM: citizens as customers Citizens as Consumers

15. “running government like a business” NPM advocates market-like models citizens as consumers. tools and techniques from marketing Marketing and Modernisation

16. rapid responses to consumer concerns extension of choice and customisation market research Three central marketing applications.

17. distinctive characteristics restraints, duties and opportunities transfers resources monopoly of violence. efficiency depends on consent broad assent of the governed. Rapid responses (1)

18. NPM - clear distinction between political and administrative matters central dichotomy - unsupported by evidence politicians concerned about implementation public servants, non-partisans, rarely neutral Rapid responses (2)

19. Time-based competition - profound strategy issue in business underpins business process re-engineering literature and practice of the past decade. NPM mirrors emphasis on speed of response Rapid responses (3)

20. Osborne and Gaebler (1992): “Bureaucracy designed earlier in the century simply do not function well in the rapidly changing, information rich, knowledge – intensive society and economy of the 1990s”. In public service delivery IT applications proliferated hierarchies flattening response times shorter Rapid responses (4)

21. information provided at whatever speed is not disinterested private sector influence purchasing, consuming, investing political system affect the behaviour of citizens representative system of democracy more measured and deliberate reaction Rapid responses (5)

22. NPM diffuses political accountability. new public managers: “authoritative allocations of value”. Even if called customers, still citizens. Rapid response (6)

23. polar opposites: standardised vs. tailored today: customised at mass production prices public sector products: “customised” but scarce and free at point of consumption. political system: rationing function Putman: enable individuals to retreat from society result in a reduction in social capital through a narrowing and fragmenting perspective. Extension of choice and customisation

24. Surveys, opinion polls, focus group interviews commonplace IT offers lower costs, larger samples, the ability to focus on small subpopulations, routine use of visuals and easy access to low-incidence samples but… traditional means of political participation can challenge the deliberative and accountable mechanisms of the democratic process by its immediacy and claims to scientific validity. “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion”. Burke 1774 Market research

25. clientelism: moderated service delivery demise is associated with “modernisation” or democratic maturity influenced Irish political science greatly in the 1960s Democracies undergo a transition from clientelist to programmatic politics Modernisation: the project

26. In a modern state, as understood by modernisation theorists, clientelism has no place Form of political immaturity dampens collective action But, links between citizens and elites are: voluntary connect people of unequal status personal and face-to-face long lasting. Modernisation: the project

27. Neither party is forced to take part; both feel some sense of obligation; it may be a response to impersonal or alienating bureaucratic structures. modernisation theorists confounded by predictive failure Modernisation: the project

28. …to be successful in politics aspirants to office have to be able to show they have power. Those who can deliver material favours are said to have 'pull'…an ability to 'deliver' more than other competitors for political office…In local parlance the actions which most strikingly demonstrate power…are termed 'strokes'. The perpetrator of a stroke is called a 'cute hoor', a term which denotes a certain admiration for the way in which he outmanoeuvres his competitors (O Carroll 1987:82). Modernisation: the project

29. the cute hoors serve a useful function in marketing terms, as market research, market testing, complaint management, refining implementation procedures and the like. self-interest of politicians of appearing influential could be harnessed Modernisation: the project

30. Peters: minor rule-bending, or irritating of headquarters on the customer’s behalf, downright heroic! Similar behaviour portrayed as anachronistic and unhelpful. A good starting point is to recognise the cute hoor as hero. Modernisation: the project