Science policy meets post-New Public Management: Estonian and Finnish reforms 2012–2015

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study compares recent Estonian and Finnish research steering reforms. Both cases exhibit post- New Public Management (post-NPM)-style policy ideas that seek to enhance coordination over institutional boundaries but diverge in their horizontal and vertical configurations for coordination. This study combines perspectives on coordination from science policy and public administration with a historical institutionalist approach for understanding case divergence. This article argues that post-NPM reforms can involve rather diverse forms of coordination, which are affected by institutional legacies. We also argue that coordination efforts in science policy can involve a strengthened instrumentalization of research for policy-making, and, in such cases, they should be studied in close conjunction with public administration and its policy trends.