Critically assess the utility of the leading conceptual models of “traditional public administration”, “new public management” and “new public governance” in helping us to understanding of how the public sector functions in the UK today.
Aims of the Module and Learning Outcomes
Being introductory, the module aims to provoke thought, challenge preconceptions, stimulate questions and nourish inquisitive minds, more than to provide a set diet of ready-made ‘answers’. Thus, what is the meaning of public administration?
How ought the system of public administration to be organised? What should be the responsibilities of the public sector?
How is accountability ensured? How can we improve our public services? Inevitably, the philosophical issues raised by these questions make for argument and introduce conflicting interpretations.
The module aims to ensure some familiarity with the alternative perspectives advanced in these questions.
In terms of specific outcomes, a successful student will be able to show that he/she can:
SUBJECT-RELATED QUALITIES
A1. Demonstrate knowledge of the principal features of public administration – accountability, equity and legality.
A2. Understand the key theoretical approaches to the study of public administration.
A3. Appreciate the territorial dimension of public administration, including local government, agencies and non-departmental public bodies, devolved government in Northern Ireland, and the international institutions such as the European Union.
A4. Outline the role played by agencies and non-departmental public bodies in the system of public administration.
A5. As a result of the above, comment more authoritatively on topical issues in the field of public administration.
INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES
B1. Identify, analyse and synthesize materials from primary and secondary source materials that assist in the understanding of public administration.
B2. Construct and defend a reasoned argument in presenting a seminar paper or assignment topic.
B3. Be creative in considering topics in public administration, which demands thinking around applied policy issues drawing, where possible, on in-service experience.
B4. Learn through the cross-fertilisation of ideas from others’ experience of working in the public sector (where appropriate).
PROFESSIONAL/PRACTICAL SKILLS
C1. Reflect critically on learning and through constructive feedback from the tutor and one’s own independent learning.
C2. Plan and organise tasks and collaborate, where appropriate, with others in completing seminar papers or group work.
C3. Complete written submissions in a way that demonstrates systematic information gathering, accuracy, detailed referencing and critical reflection on arguments presented.
C4. Participate in academic discussions that develop from lecture topics.
TRANSFERABLE/KEY SKILLS
D1. Demonstrate proficiency in standard library and information retrieval systems (electronic journals, social science databases) and the internet.
D2. Make use of relevant numerical and statistical information from government reports, websites and databases.
D3. Communicate effectively and fluently in speech and writing.
D4. Progress beyond the level of content, knowledge and description to analysis and critical evaluation.
Learning Objectives
To appreciate the key elements of the traditional model of the bureaucratic public organisation and to compare and contrast with the New Public Management and New Public Governance approaches.
There are various theoretical narratives on public administration. Essentially, however, there are three key theoretical perspectives. The first embodies what might be termed a ‘traditional public administration’ approach that is rooted very much in a pluralist conception of the state. As such, it is generally supportive of the public service ethic and the value of public sector in society. It sees the need for a mixed economy of public and private sectors. While co-operating, these sectors exhibit fundamental differences. The principal counter-position comes from the ‘New Right’. As such, it regards the public sector with varying degrees of suspicion, favouring an overall reduction in the size of the public sector coupled with the inclusion of greater management techniques from the private sector. The New Right was one, albeit key, element that has shaped the emergence of what has been dubbed ‘New Public Management’. Although open to considerable interpretation and challenge, public management has certainly re-ignited interest in the whole question of how the public sector should be organised and managed.
Here are some definitions of public management:
Public management is a merger of the normative orientation of traditional administration and the instrumental orientation of general management (Perry and Kraemer, 1983).
The field of public management is better defined analytically than institutionally. No clear institutional distinction can be drawn… The critical area of public management is the management of organisational interdependence, for example, in the delivery of services or in the management of the budgetary process. Public management is concerned with the functioning of whole systems of organisations… What distinguishes public management is the explicit acknowledgement of the responsibility for dealing with structural problems at the level of the system as a whole (Metcalfe and Richards, 1987).
Public management was interpreted to mean different things by different authors, but it was usually characterised by a different set of symbols from those associated with public administration. It was thought to be about budget management not just budget holding, a contract culture (including contracts with private sector providers of services) and employment contracts for staff which were for fixed periods and might well not be renewed, entrepreneurship and risk taking, and accountability for performance. In other words, a move away from being a public administrator to a public manager.
The debate on the impact of NPM and indeed whether it is a paradigm at all has become contested. It is argued that NPM has been a transitory stage in the evolution from traditional public administration to what might be termed New Public Governance (NPG).
The argument is that public policy implementation and public services delivery have passed through 3 design and delivery regimes: a longer, pre-eminent phase of Public Administration, from the late 19th century through to the late 1970s/early 1980s; a second phase, NPM through the start of the 21st century; and an emergent third one, of NPG since then. Elements of each regime can and will co-exist with each other or overlap. For example, both PA and public governance contain strong, if differentiated, elements of hierarchy.
In the UK in the 1945-79 era of the welfare state when the state was confidently expected to meet all the social and economic needs of the citizenry ‘from the cradle to the grave’, PA was to be the instrument in this brave new world with a focus on administrative procedures to ensure equality of treatment. Predictably, perhaps, such a vision was doomed to failure as public needs inevitably outstripped the public resources available to meet them.
At a practical level NPM led to the evolution of management as a coherent and legitimised role and function with public service organisations in contrast to (and often in conflict with) the traditional professional groupings within these organisations.
Both PA and NPM fail to capture the complex reality of design, delivery and management of public services in the 21st century. There is now a pressing need for a more sophisticated understanding of public policy implementation and public services delivery, one that moves beyond the sterile dichotomy of ‘administration Vs management’.
New Public Governance is not presented as a normative new paradigm to supersede PA and the NPM as ‘the one best way’. Rather it is offered both as a conceptual tool with potential to assist our understanding of the complexity of challenges and a reflection of the reality of the working lives of public managers today.
Discussion points:
What are the principal features of ‘traditional public administration’?
To what extent are the criticisms emanating from the New Right fair and accurate?
Is there such a thing as ‘Public Management’ or is the concept simply a recasting of old ideas?
Can the public sector benefit from the introduction of private sector ideas and ways of operating?
What are the obstacles and pitfalls of public management?
Governance simply another set of theoretical propositions that do little to represent the realities of public policy implementation and public services delivery in the practical world you live in as an official?
Give examples of socio-political, public policy, administrative, contract and network governance, the key elements that constitute New Public Governance.
Is New Public Governance simply a rehash of writings on policy communities and networks that have been around since the 1990s?
