Publication

This paper describes how the private sector processes of new public management (NPM) have increasingly become a global phenomenon in the public administration sector. The author explains that key elements of NPM include various forms of decentralizing management within public services, increasing the use of markets and competition in the provision of public services, and increasing emphasis on performance, outputs and customer orientation. The paper states that NPM reforms have been driven by a combination of economic, social, political and technological factors and that a common feature of countries going down the NPM route has been the experience of economic and fiscal crises, which in turn triggered the quest for efficiency and for ways to cut the cost of delivering public services.