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New Public Management: The Cruellest Invention of the Human Spirit? 1
Author(s) -
LAPSLEY IRVINE
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
abacus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.632
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-6281
pISSN - 0001-3072
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6281.2009.00275.x
Subject(s) - disappointment , faith , public sector , government (linguistics) , audit , new public management , public administration , private sector , political science , business , accounting , law , philosophy , theology , psychology , social psychology , linguistics
This article examines one of the most significant phenomena of the late twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries—the emergence of New Public Management (NPM). NPM has been widely adopted, internationally. However, its adoption is based on governments having faith in its deployment to transform their public sectors using private sector performance criteria. In this article, the case is advanced that the widespread use of NPM is often a cruel disappointment for governments. This is demonstrated by focusing on four key elements of NPM, as practised in the early twenty‐first century—the role of management consultants, the development of e‐government, the emergence of the ‘audit society’ and the increasing importance of risk management.