Public Management and Government Performance: A Consideration of Theory and Evidence

This paper sets forth the following ideas: (1) The New Public Management (NPM) is both a paradigm for administrative reform - a set of answers - and an organizing theme for public administration scholarship - a set of questions. (2) At one end of a production continuum at which publicly-provided goods resemble private goods, economic logic suggests that public management strategies are likely to be endogenous with respect to structural arrangements, and public management will resemble private management. At the other end of that continuum, at which publicly provided goods have ambiguous or vague technologies and outcomes, public management strategies are more likely to be exogenous with respect to public sector structures, and public management will necessarily be more political and "outward" oriented. (3) The search for answers to NPM's questions suggests the need for more scholarly interest in formulating and testing competing explanations for governmental performance, especially at the collective goods (or welfare state) end of the production spectrum. This will necessarily involve greater interest in theoretical integration and synthesis. (4) The view of "public management" as "what public managers contribute" begs the question "compared to what?" The answer, in principle, is "compared to the other structural and administrative means whereby democratic states pursue their collective aims."