scholarly journals Evolution in Public Governance Models: From Administrative Management to the Hybrid and Normative Concept of Good Governance (Part I)

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 106-124

The administrative-bureaucratic system developed by M. Weber dominated for many years in public governance. Serious criticisms of its inefficiency led to the emergence of an alternative concept called new public management in the 1980s. The new model introduced market-oriented solutions, as well as corporate management tools and approaches such as strategic and business planning. As a result, the new public management increased the efficiency of public governance. However, it created public discontent due to ignoring the criteria of social justice. With globalization and technological change, new views and paradigms emerged, which have been derived from the practices of many countries and crystalize in the concept of good governance. It is a hybrid concept because new socially significant principles such as openness, transparency and digital communication have been added to accepted principles like rule of law, efficiency and effectiveness. It is also a normative concept because the principles are treated as guiding rules, which countries have to follow in their public governance.

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 576-596
Author(s):  
Panagiota Xanthopoulou ◽  
Iosif Plimakis

The current paper presents some aspects and criticisms from the theoretical literature concerning the New Public Management (NPM). The article also critically examines whether the NPM model is appropriate and the drivers that affected its efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector especially in Greece, during the current pandemic. The research concluded that the process of managerial reform and the specific criteria in order to evaluate NPM’s effectiveness are not completed yet and that there are some key barriers such as the statist perception of citizens and politicians, the corruption of public, the fragmented organizational structures, the resistance to change that hinder the success of change and of NPM’s effective implementation in public sector. However, Covid-19 was a situation that helped many aspects of NPM such as digitalization, digital transformation, e-governance etc. to effectively be introduced and implemented in public governance of Greek organisations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002085232098815
Author(s):  
Khouloud Senda Bennani ◽  
Anissa Ben Hassine ◽  
Bachir Mazouz

The aim of this article is to categorise the factors of tension in public organisational settings. The context of the administrative reforms undertaken in Tunisia has been chosen as an empirical illustration of the public governance tensions associated with managerial artefacts. The study focuses on three types of factors. An analysis of these factors confirms the theories on the appropriation of management tools and helps raise the existing level of knowledge in relation to the processes to mitigate public governance tensions within public organisations. Points for practitioners Today, the modernisation of public governance goes hand in hand with the introduction of new public management tools in administrative settings. On a practical level, the appropriation of these tools generates a tense relationship between political decision-makers and public managers. Often perceived from the perspective of paradoxical demands and antagonistic relationships that disrupt the daily life of state organisations, public governance tensions can be managed as long as they are identified and categorised in the light of the factors of tension associated with the reforms undertaken.


Author(s):  
R. A. W. Rhodes

The chapter reviews the several definitions of governance: the minimal state; corporate governance; the new public management, ‘good’ governance; a socio-cybernetic system. It then stipulates a definition of governance as self-organizing, inter-organizational networks. It argues there is a trend from government to governance in British government because of the hollowing-out pressures and the tools for intergovernmental management are integral to effective steering. Policy networks are already widespread. This trend is not widely recognized and has important implications not only for the practice of British government but also for democratic accountability. Governance as self-organizing networks is a challenge to governability because the networks can become autonomous and resist central guidance. They are set fair to become the prime example of governing without government.


Author(s):  
Morten Egeberg ◽  
Jarle Trondal

Chapter 7 offers a large-N study on whether the geographical location of government agencies affects public governance. Two decades of New Public Management have placed agencification high on the agenda of administrative policymakers. Moreover, agencies organized at arm’s length from ministerial departments have sometimes also been located outside of the capital or political centre. Although practitioners tend to assign weight to location as regards political-administrative behaviour, this relationship has been largely ignored by scholars in the field. This chapter shows that agency autonomy, agency influence, and inter-institutional coordination seem to be relatively unaffected by agency site. The chapter also specifies some conditions under which this finding is valid.


Author(s):  
Morten Egeberg ◽  
Jarle Trondal

This chapter draws attention to the effects of vertical specialization of organizations and how it affects public governance. The chapter documents that agency officials pay significantly less attention to signals from executive politicians than their counterparts within ministerial (cabinet-level) departments. This finding also holds when controlling for variation in tasks, the political salience of issue areas, and officials’ rank. In addition, it is documented that the greater the organizational capacity available within the respective ministerial departments, the more agency personnel tend to assign weight to signals from the political leadership. Expert concerns are strongly emphasized at both levels; however, agency personnel are more sensitive to the influence of affected parties. The chapter applies large-N questionnaire data at four points in time (1986, 1996, 2006, and 2016) that spans three decades and shifting administrative doctrines: New Public Management as well as post-New Public Management.


Author(s):  
Stavros Zouridis ◽  
Vera Leijtens

Abstract Recently, scholars have claimed that public management theory has too much ignored law. Consequently, the under-legalized conception of public management has produced a flawed understanding of public management theory as well as public management practices, threatening public institutions’ legitimacy. In this article, we argue that law never left public management theory. Rather, the link between government and law has been redefined twice. We refer to the assumptions that constitute this link as the law-government nexus. This nexus changed from lawfulness in a public administration paradigm, to legal instrumentalism in a (new) public management paradigm, and to a networked concept in the public governance (PG) paradigm. In order to prevent a faulty over-legalized conception of public management, bringing the law back in should be built on lessons from the past. This article elaborates on three strategies to reconnect law and public management. We map the strengths and weaknesses of each law-government nexus and illustrate these with the case of the Dutch tax agency. In our strategies that aim to reconceptualize the current law-government nexus, we incorporate the benefits of each paradigm for public management theory. The revised law-governance nexus enables the PG paradigm to correspond to contemporary issues without encountering old pathologies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilpo Laitinen ◽  
Tony Kinder ◽  
Jari Stenvall

The paper argues that from a new public governance and service management perspective, local public services are best conceptualised as service systems in which users co-produce and co-design; this differentiates public from private services, which have lower of trust and shared values resulting in a goods-dominant logic and are an alternative to the new public management viewpoint. Referencing new case studies from Finland and Scotland, we further argue that for local public servicesʼn co-production as an action- learning environment supports and encourages co-design: this makes local public services a special case of codesign. Analysing the two cases of co-design, we argue that since public services are subject to public scrutiny, and since design is a social activity, there exists a wider democratic footprint. Finally, we argue that co-design of local public services is best analysed from the perspective of action learning, for which we suggest an analytical framework.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 44-58
Author(s):  
Cecilie Glerup ◽  
Ursula Plesner

Der har gennem de seneste år været stort fokus på kommunikation i den offentlige sektor. Kommunikation er blevet en organisatorisk og institutionel betingelse for offentlig ledelse, der fylder som opgave i den offentlige leders daglige arbejde. Denne artikel anskuer sproget som aktivt medskabende af den kontekst, hvori det indgår. Den undersøger relationerne mellem offentlig ledelseskommunikation og styringsparadigmer såsom New Weberian State, New Public Management og New Public Governance, fordi disse kan anskues som de sociale kontekster, kommunikationen skal virke i. Artiklen er baseret på kvalitative forskningsinterviews med offentlige ledere fra forskellige sektorer; undervisning, ældrepleje, politi, psykiatri, planlægning m.m. Analysen anskueliggør hvordan ledernes kommunikation formes af og er med til at forme forskellige typer styring: bureaukrati, New Public Management og New Public Governance. I alle disse kontekster beskrev lederne forskellige udfordringer med at mobilisere interesse, hvorfor vi konkluderer, at offentlige lederes kommunikation fra denne artikels perspektiv er et konstant mobiliseringsarbejde, og ikke blot et værktøj til at løse konkrete problemer. Et blik på kommunikation og styringsparadigmer fortæller os således, at offentlige ledere har brug for at kunne arbejde analytisk og strategisk med at skabe opmærksomhed om og engagement i en mængde sammenhænge via 1) en formel juridisk og økonomisk retorik, 2) en visionær og historiefortællende praksis og 3) eksperimenterende og lokale dialoger.


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