The New Public Governance: Tracing the Shift from Public Administration and New Public Management

Abstract: Over the last hundred years there has been a transition in the ways in which people think about the operation of government. There have been three major transitions. The first was an emphasis on hierarchy, written rules and a politically neutral civil service. This was associated with Classical Public Administration. The second emphasized efficiency using techniques from the private sector and principles of markets. This was known as New Public Management (NPM). The third is currently being referred to as New Public Governance (NPG). NPG starts from the premise that the production of public services occurs through multiple relationships between organizations and citizens rather than by one single state machine. This study reviews the history of this shift both intellectually and practically. It looks at the underlying assumptions of each paradigm, examines why NPM failed to sustain itself and shifted toward NPG. This paper also outlines the characteristics of NPG, and evaluates some of the criticisms made against it such as lack of accountability and ambiguity. In addition to reviewing these issues, a brief section also discusses how the three logics operate simultaneously in India’s administrative system. Finally, the study concludes that it would be more accurate to view these paradigms as overlapping layers rather than as successive replacements, and that NPG has made a unique contribution to redirecting focus towards networking, legitimacy and participative orientation in public service.

Keywords: new public governance; public administration; new public management; networks; participation; neutrality.