New Public Management and Decision Making in UK Public Policy

Discuss how the tendency of New Public Management has impacted on

decision making in UK public policy.

New Public Management is generally used to describe a management

culture that emphasises upon the citizen or customer as being central,

as well as having accountability for results. It also suggests

organizational structures and promotes decentralized control, many

different types of service delivery mechanisms, including

quasi-markets with public and private service providers competing for

resources. New Public Management does not suggest that a government

should stop performing certain tasks. Although the New Public

Management often is associated with such a perspective on a policy

level, New Public Management is not about whether tasks should be

undertaken or not. It is about getting things done better.

New Public Management was devised as a means to improve efficiency and

responsiveness to political changes. Its origins were in parliamentary

democracies with excessively strong executive powers, centralized

governments, and not much administrative law. In this setting, New

Public Management embodies the idea of a chain of contracts leading to

a single ministerial person who is interested in getting better

results within a sector over which he or she has significant and

relatively unchallenged control.

One area of reform that illustrates many of the New Public Management

principles is the creation of QUANGOs (Quasi-autonomous

non-governmental organisations) to carry out the service delivery. The

New Public Management argument for agencies is that service providers

should concentrate on efficient production of quality services, with

the distractions of evaluating alternative policies removed. The

discussion of the creation of “executive agencies” in the UK and the

similar developments in Australia, Canada and France has been common

with references to clear, well-defined targets that allow providers to

concentrate on their main business. Similarly, policy-making is seen

to be more focused, more rigorous, and sometimes even more adventurous

if it can be made without the burden of concern for the existing

service providers. Once purchasing has been detached from

policy-making, there are opportunities for creating contract-like

arrangements to provide performance incentives.

A pandemic of public sector management ref...

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problems of the public sector, a careful and selective adaptation of

some elements to selected sectors may be beneficial. The public sector

has been completely rearranged as a result of the tendency towards New

Public Management and decision making within UK public policy has

changed drastically, there now exists a much more formal and planned

approach.

References

[1] Pollitt, C. and G. Bouckaert (2000) Public Management Reform

Oxford, Oxford University Press.

[2] Hughes, O. (1998) Public Management and Administration London,

MacMillan, 2nd Edition.

[3] Boyne, G.A., C. Farrell, J. Law, M. Powell and R. Walker (2002)

Evaluating Public Management Reforms: Principles and Practice

Buckingham, Open University Press.

[4] George A. Larbi, 2000, “Public Sector Reform and Crisis-Ridden

States”, “UNRISD”, 1st September 1999.

[5] Lee, D., Newman, P. & Price, R. (1999) Decision Making in

Organizations, London: Pitman FT.

[6] Lindblom, Charles E. The Science of Muddling Through. Public

Administration Review, 19 (1959), 79-89

[7] Downs, G. and P. Larkey (1986) The Quest for Government Efficiency,

New York, Random House.