Shaping NPM: Social democratic values at work

Abstract

In this chapter, New Public Management (NPM) reforms are discussed, with focus on the Swedish public sector. The purpose is to question assumptions concerning the emergence of NPM within a Swedish context. A historical review reveals that reforms within the Swedish public sector express a heavy influence from the private sector; the idea of letting business and commercial logics guide the rationales of public-sector reforms can be traced back to the early twentieth century. The findings presented in this chapter are of particular interest for policymakers and public managers within public organizations. One conclusion is that the pragmatism and reformism characterizing Swedish social democracy during the post-World War II era has enabled an adaption and adoption for emerging NPM policies; Scandinavian thinking has not focused on bad practices but rather on evolving reforms. This has resulted in responsiveness for reforms, ultimately leading to a distinctly Swedish form of NPM emerging from the need to satisfy both socialism and capitalism. (Less)