Ashgate Research Companion to New Public Management

Professor Tom Christensen, University of Oslo, Norway and Professor Per Lægreid, University of Bergen, Norway.

The Companion provides the first comprehensive overview of the most important changes in democratic administrative reform in the post-War era. This will equip scholars, students and policy makers with a solid foundation on which to build assessments of the new approaches to performance management, accountability and flexibility. Well written and presented, the chapters combine sound theoretical insight with useful overviews of national systems. Whether one is an ardent supporter or determined critic of these reforms, the Companion will serve as a starting point for analysis and assessment.'Mark Considine, University of Melbourne, Australia'New Public Management has swept much of the world in the past 20-30 years, a reform movement fed by its adoption by major governments and its promotion by many international agencies. Much has been written about it, puzzling over its origins, the reasons for its appeal and its consequences. This excellent volume presents a comprehensive, systematic and provocative review of how this happened, what it means, and what its effects have been. A must collection for anyone interested in contemporary administrative reform.'Joel D. Aberbach, Center for American Politics and Public Policy, UCLA, USA'If you want to understand how and why the public sector has changed in the last twenty years, and how and why it has resisted or translated change, this is the definitive account to read. The leading international researches in the field do not only tell what happened, but offer realistic and compelling theoretical explanations.'Werner Jann, University of Potsdam, Germany'What exactly has been discovered about the much debated phenomenon of "New Public Management" (NPM), after nearly 20 years of research? If anything can tell us that, it should be this weighty book, written by nearly 40 academics who have debated the issues in international forums for 15 years or so... the book will be an essential source of reference because most of the world's major scholars in the field appear in it, the references alone run to some 63 pages, and it includes thoughtful and authoritative essays on most of the topics that have been discussed on the NPM conference circuit over the past two decades. ... This collection is definitely an important milestone in NPM research...' Governance'This work helps to bring clarity to the evolution and impact of NPM reform, particularly in Europe and Australia and New Zealand... Each chapter is well written and presents its information in accessible language that can be understood by a non-expert... this is an impressive work and is highly recommended for students and researchers interested in studying the movement.' American Reference Books Annual

• 1: Introduction; I: NPM Processes: Driving Forces; 2: Basic NPM Ideas and their Development; 3: The Political-Administrative Design of NPM; 4: The Relevance of Culture for NPM; 5: New Public Organisations: A Revivalist Movement 1; II: Convergence and Divergence among Countries; 6: NPM in Anglo-Saxon Countries; 7: Public Management Reform in Continental Europe: National Distinctiveness; 8: NPM in Scandinavia; 9: NPM in Asian Countries; III: Sector Studies; 10: Healthcare States and Medical Professions: The Challenges from NPM; 11: NPM, Network Governance and the University as a Changing Professional Organization; 12: NPM Ideas and Social Welfare Administration; 13: Utility Regulation and NPM; IV: NPM Features; 14: Structural Devolution to Agencies; 15: Managing Performance and Auditing Performance; 16: Managerialism and Models of Management; 17: Privatization; 18: A Transformative Perspective on Public–Private Partnerships; V: Effects and Implications of NPM; 19: NPM and the Search for Efficiency; 20: Unions, Corporatist Participation and NPM; 21: NPM: Restoring the Public Trust through Creating Distrust?; 22: Scientization; 23: An Aftermath of NPM: Regained Relevance of Public Values and Public Service Motivation; 24: Serving the Public? Users, Consumers and the Limits of NPM; 25: Responses to NPM: From Input Democracy to Output Democracy; 26: Normativity and NPM: A Need for Some Theoretical Coherence; VI: NPM and Beyond; 27: Beyond NPM? Some Development Features; 28: Reinventing Weber: The Role of Institutions in Creating Social Trust; 29: Public Governance and Public Services: A ‘Brave New World' or New Wine in Old Bottles? 1