Answer:
APPROACH AND STRUCTURE
1. Write an introduction on NPM.
2. Write some basics about NPM.
3. Then write about schools of post-1950.
4. Then show how NPM is radical while others were not.
5. Say NPA was also radical and NPM is also non-radical.
6. Conclude
NOTE: an analytical approach is needed to solve such kinds of questions.
INTRODUCTION: Christopher Hood coined the term “New Public Management” in 1991, which emerged as the most dominant paradigm of public administration in the contemporary times which is unprecedented and radical in nature.
BODY: The roots of the emergence of NPM lies in the neo liberal philosophy which also gave rise to the Public Choice Approach. The contextual developments in terms of practice such as Thatcherism, Reaganism, LPG etcand also in terms of discipline were already happening under the impact of PCA which provided the base for the emergence of NPM.
Features of NPM: The features of NPM are based on the contributions of various thinkers who highlighted the need for the new management strategy for the administration such as:
Osborne and Gaebler: In their book “Reinventing Government” published in 1992, they gave the philosophy that “we don’t need big government rather better governance”. For better governance they also provided the features which cumulatively characterizes the entrepreneurial government i.e. government which is more result oriented, enterprising, customer friendly rather than a government which is welfare oriented. They envisaged the head of the government and the administrators to function as entrepreneurs i.e. innovative and risk taking
For instance:
- Catalyst driven.
- Steerer not rower.
- Facilitator not producer.
- Client and customer orientation.
- Community oriented.
- Less bureaucratic and more flexible.
Marketization: Rejecting the welfare model of the government which is more concentrated towards the public interest and social justice. The concept of marketisation took center stage during NPM
It has features such as:
- Privatization and competition
- Contracting out and user fee/charges
- Client/customer orientation
The idea behind the marketization is that those who can pay will get the quality of services and there is a shift in the government approach from being welfarist to profit orientated.
Managerialism: The NPM not only tells about what the government should do but also how the government shall do it. This brings in the idea of managerialism in the functioning of the state with the idea behind it as “letting and making managers manage”.
The features at the heart of managerialism are:
- Result oriented.
- Performance measurement
- Incentivization
- Merit and efficiency
Schools of PA since 1950s:
1. NPA: wanted to have solution in administration by improving administration. It came out with 5 goals, 3 anti gols and 4D strategy
- Debureacratisation- avoid behaviouralism and value neutral approach
- Delegation – for better functioning
- Decentralisation-to stop abuse of power
- Democratisation –equal participation
2. Blacksburg school: talked about democratic principles to be inculcated in PA but no any replacement or radical reform was suggested.
3.PCA: It wanted to have market with democratic approach..4Ds that is,
- Debureacratisation- rolling back of the state
- Denationalisation- privatisation
- Decentralisation deal with
- Democratisation privatisation
It talks about Institutional Pluralism and Methodological Individualism but not completely rejects public sector or role of public because public sector can work more effectively on those areas which are common to the public.
4. LPG: These were influenced by NRP/NLP in order to have an open economy and free market principles but opined that state should remain the functional in delivering essential services to its citizens.
5. CPA/DA: It came up with comparative analysis to frame a universal principle of administration. Comparative Administration Group (CAG) was formed which studied ecologies of developing countries and compared it with developed ones. Development Administration tried to enhance the scope of administrative practices. It only reformed the administration but suggested nothing about substitution or radical reforms.
6. Governance/Good Governance: Governance talked about how state can decrease its role while increasing effectiveness. GG consisted of value laden approach and enlarge participation, role of citizens in decision making. Nothing about substitution was opined.
Therefore, we can see that none of the schools advocated radical point of view. They didn’t lead to emergence of any new paradigm.
The call of NPM in this regard was to some extent radical as explained below.
- Performance accountability for 3Es in place of democratic accountability.
- Withdrawal of state and change in role of state.
- New techniques for 3Es like contractualisation, disaggregation, competition, incentivisation, PPP etc.
- 3Es for serving the customer not citizens.
- Decentralisation, debureaucratisation, and downsizing.
- Payment for service provided by state like user fee.
NPM completely rejects democratic government. It wanted to replace democratic accountability with accountability to performance. Its main aspect was Neo-Taylorism or to develop such tools and techniques which could enhance efficiency of the state.
The emergence of NPM during the 1990s resulted in the paradigm6/governance paradigm in public administration i.e. NPM has such a profound influence on public administration so much so that it led to the emergence of a new paradigm. No single theory or model after Paradigm II has given rise to a separate paradigm and hence NPM is considered as the most significant development in public administration in the contemporary times. The NPM had such a wide impact that the reforms were experienced by most of the countries around the world in terms of managerialism, regulation, marketization especially in the public sector management. (for examples of NPM refer to answer no.
7 (a). However, before NPM also some radical features were present. NPA was revolutionary in approach and remarked as the first reinvention by Nicholas Henry.
NPM is the cumulative outcome of NRP and PCA which were present before the rise of NPM as a separate paradigm.
Some weaknesses of NPM:
- New Public Management repeats the same mistake done by the classical era thinkers by treating public administration on similar lines with business administration. NPM adopts a universalistic approach as if all administrations face the same problems and have similar solutions to those problems.
- It overlooked the capacity of state and trust of citizens which was there in social contract.
- NPM relegated the democratic accountability to performance accountability and in a way turned citizens into customers.
- Rolling back of state, privatisation, contracting out increased the scope for corruption.
CONCLUSION: Post-NPM models have not completely rejected the NPM model rather restructured NPM to keep the democratic way of governance along with the efficiency. Even if there have been sharp criticisms of NPM but it still remains relevant as a managerial strategy to bring reforms in the administration to achieve efficiency and improve performance. Since the foundation of public administration was about establishing efficient administration, NPM has provided a formidable strategy as a managerial technique to establish efficient administration by reforming administration from within. In fact, the field of PA is still profoundly influenced by NPM like we can see in India minimum government and maximum governance philosophy.
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