New Public Management in the UK: Enduring Legacy or Fatal Remedy?

Abstract

In assessing developments in the UK subsequent to the New Public Management (NPM) reforms of the 1980s and 1990s an important question is whether the structures and practices created by the NPM reforms are enduring or whether, as so often is the case in administrative reform, they are quickly being replaced. There is some evidence that certain parts of the NPM reform have been ‘fatal remedies’ -the reforms originally intended to solve problems of public sector performance have led to side and perverse effects, creating the conditions for their own demise. These processes have been reinforced by changes because of policy makers’ altered priorities. The ‘fatal remedies’ have been especially found in some aspects of competitive NPM structures and in disaggregated corporate units involving splitting ‘policy’ from ‘service delivery.’ However, many parts of NPM, especially disaggregated units more generally and the use of private providers appear to be a more enduring legacy. In some of these areas, rather than removing NPM structures, new mechanisms have been developed to ameliorate some of their undesirable side-effects, particularly through the increased use of regulation of government.