New Public Management Reforms.

Kane Dane

The New Public Management (NPM) has brought in reforms in many ways. Market philosophy cannot be an adequate substitute for the public interest which is the core of the governmental operations. It reforms mainly focus on privatization, marketization, contracting out, debureaucratisation, etc.

New public management reforms has explained in the following points:

Pubic administration is a key component of all human endeavors towards betterment of lines, and it emerged in the arena of provision of public services.

Difference between Traditional Public Administration and New Public Management:

Traditionally public administration has been limited. Administration and government are indeed inseparable in modern times and both converge on the organization government and politics. Organizations are the chief characteristics of modern society and management of organization has become the heart of public administration.

Organization has become the hallmark of both government and business. Thus the public administration as the activities of group cooperating to accomplish common goals. The new public management give an explicit place and status to the public services.

Managerial Predominance over Policy Capacity:

New public management gives significance to managerial principles and practices and does not assign importance to policy-making. Policy is the most important component of the administrative system.

The chief function of the civil servants advice to political representative and help in policy-making. Bureaucracy as an instrument of state of the implementation of policies and programs.

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Lack of Relationship between Citizens and Political Representatives:

In the society, new public management fails to establish a clear-cut relationship between citizens and politicians. Specially in the democratic countries, people have a key role and having direct relationship with their elected representatives.

The politicians are also responsible for their needs and demands. In this way, the state is able to control the society on the basis of a democratic mandate from the people. But the new public management model play a dominant role and fail to indicate the ways through which people in a market system can contribute towards creating a suitable democratic system.

Absence of a Clear-cut Concept of Accountability:

Public administration emphasizes on democratic accountability The processes, laws and hierarchical controls are intended to make administration efficient and accountable to public. New public management is more managerial in nature than political it also emphasizes on the strategic role of public managers.

The role of politicians and bureaucrats in the new public management is clarity the gap between both. In the new public management market forces playing a key role and there is. a fear of dilution of the concept of hierarchical accountability.

Promotion of Individualistic Ideas in Place of Collective Interests:

New public management is considered to be an individualistic philosophy but it fails to take the collective demands of the society. Collective interest is based on the Majority and it is a distinct feature of democracy. In a developing country, specially the market-oriented restructuring is bound to affect certain categories of society particularly to the poor.

Citizen vs. Customer orientation:

New public management provides customer orientation to the government. It is based on empowerment of customers, increased citizen choices, strengthening the government in providing public choices in meeting the needs of the customer.

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Customer orientation is the fallout of the public choice theory and application of market economics to the government that promotes provision of choices by the market forces.

Reinventing movement propounded by Osborne and Gaebler in U.S.A. focuses on empowerment of individual customer to make their own choices. The value of individual is judged more than the values of achieving collective democratic consensus.

New public management emphasis on the achievement of objectives of economy and efficiency, Social equity, justice, accountability, responsiveness, transparency and participation are equally important for the new public management reform. New public management reform are not generalized prescriptions solutions that can be hold good and positive results for wall the countries.

It cannot be a single deminout administrative reform strategy for developing countries. Therefore, public administration has to be set and looked at from its own environmental context.