Origins of the new public management: an international view from public administration/political science

Abstract

The New Public Management (NPM) began life as a conceptual device invented for purposes of structuring scholarly discussion of contemporary changes in the organization and management of executive government. The actual term was coined by political scientists working in the field of public administration in the UK and Australia (Hood 1991; Hood and Jackson 1991). These scholars conceived NPM as a point of view about organizational design in the public sector. This point of view was analysed as a serious argument and influential package of recycled doctrines about organization and management. In the decade after entering the literature, NPM acquired a wider range of meanings. For instance, some scholars have asserted that NPM is the application of new institutional economics to public management. Departing from the idea that NPM is a point of view about aspects of public management, many scholars have used this term in referring to a pattern of policy choices. This variation in usage means NPM is more a recognizable term than a fully established concept.