CURRENT NPM RESEARCH: DIGGING DEEPER AND LOOKING FURTHER

Basically New Public Management (NPM) has advanced the introduction of ‘economic rationality’ in the public sector and the use of ‘businesslike’ styles and instruments. Whether NPM has had positive effects on the functioning of the public sector and on the quality of the services as experienced by citizens, and to what extent, remains controversial (see, e.g., Lapsley, 2008 and 2009; and Seddon, 2008). However, this does not alter the fact that NPM has played an important role in the field of public management and is still very influential. NPM can be considered as a rather loose ‘container’ term. Although Hood (1991, pp. 4-5) has mentioned common elements which indicate some main characteristics, it cannot be considered as a theory or set of guidelines which has been fully elaborated. The primary characteristics of NPM vary from country to country and have developed over the course of time, during which certain elements have been added or have faded into the background (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2004, pp. 74-96). Sometimes it is argued that the influence of NPM and in particular its emphasis on economic rationality and efficiency have diminished, and that there has been a shift to, e.g., ‘new public governance’ or ‘public value’. In several cases one actually speaks of a ‘Neo-Weberian State’ model instead of NPM (see, e.g., Moore, 1995; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2004, p. 99; and Osborne, 2006). These approaches pay more attention to aspects such as service delivery processes, the meaning of democratic processes, the interests of citizens, and the final outcomes of government activities. However, without having the intention to start a discussion about the precise meaning of these recently signalled trends, one might carefully suggest that the use of (sometimes more ‘soft’) businesslike methods and techniques is still an important element in them. In that sense, they can probably be regarded as more recent developments within the container term NPM, or at least as developments that are related to NPM.