On New Public Management Reform Of Anglo-Saxon Nations

Significant changes had happened in the theory and practice of public administration in Western developed countries. The traditional model of public administration, which was founded gradually since the end of 19^th century and beginning of 20^th century, bureaucracy as its main feature, is being questioned and challenged. In theory and practice of public administration, this transformation is commonly referred to as "New Public Management" reform or management. The direct background of New Public Management is the difficulties that Western countries encountered in 1970s. The traditional model of public administration seems to have some limitation that cannot overcome. There are different situations among Western countries. Among them, several Anglo-Saxon nations took similar measures to respond to the difficulties, and are seen as most representative in New Public Management reform. Under the effects of many factors, New Public Management seems to have unquestionable validity and universality in pubic administration of different countries today. Not only Western developed countries reply to it, but also some developing countries are influenced by it too, although this kind of influence bases on the conditioned loan and economic assistance from OECD, World Bank and other international organizations. Using normative, empirical and comparative research methods, this thesis focuses on five Anglo-Saxon nations: Britain, the United States, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, analyzes the New Public Management reform of each country specifically, looks for difference at the background of commonness, compare and examine the difference and their cause.The introduction part expounds the reason of choosing this theme, current domestic and foreign research situation, and the research methods that will be used in the thesis.Through the three most important theoretical foundation of traditional public administration model--bureaucracy, politics-administration dichotomy and scientific management--first chapter analyzes the traditional model of public administration. This part discusses the core characteristics of traditional public administration model, sets up foundation and frame of reference for following discussion about the common features of New Public Management and the specific practice of each nation.Chapter two analyses the New Public Management movement and its basic theory. The bringing forward of the term "New Public Management" and the background of the movement--financial pressure, propagation effects of public administration reform under the condition of globalization, the changes in private sector management—are being examined. Based on this, the following part differentiates the meaning and characteristics of New Public Management, compares and summarizes viewpoints of scholars. Then, the relevant theories of New Public Management are being discussed, which mainly include Public Choice, Principal-Agent and Transaction Costs theory. The influence of management on New Public Management are as following: loosing the strict rules and procedures in traditional model of public administration, building the "customer-oriented" administrative culture, establishing strategic plan and reinforcing strategic management, improving service quality, project evaluation and management information system.Chapter three to six discuss the New Public Management Reform of Britain, the United States, New Zealand and Canada separately. Chapter three analyses reform in Britain according to different administration: Thatcher government, Major government and Blair government. Each government is being discussed by its landmark reform steps. The reform steps of Thatcher government includes Rayner Scrutiny, Management Information System for Ministers, Financial Management Initiative and The Next Steps; Major government took The Citizen's Charter and Competing for Quality as its major steps of reform; Blair government hold Cooperative Government, Modernizing Government and Holistic Government as main measures. Chapter four analyses the detail of New Public Management reform in United States through two aspects: the relationship between government and economy & society, and internal management of government. The relationship between government and economy & society can be separated into two parts: government function and the model of providing public service. This part first discusses American government function's turning to more market-orientation in New Public Management reform, specifically analyses regulation's definition, types, origin, development and its problems, and reform of loosening regulation. Then this part analyses the market-oriented reform of public service through main principles and types. Lastly, this chapter discusses the internal management reform in American government, three important reform acts and report are being included: Civil Servants Reform Act of 1978, Gore Report of 1993 and Government Performance and Results Act.Chapter five concentrates New Public Management reform of New Zealand. State-owned enterprise reform, reconstruction of government functional departments and core government branches' management mechanism, and innovation of traditional civil servants system are being discussed. Among them, the state-owned enterprise reform consists three parts: regrouping towards corporation, business-type reconstruction and privatization. Reconstruction of government functional departments includes: separation of decision and implement, division of funding, purchasing and providing of public service, customer-orientation and competing among service-providers. Reconstruction of core government branches' management mechanism consists the conflicts and problems of New Zealand government organization management, then discusses the main characteristics and principles of new management mechanism. The innovation of traditional civil servants system discusses the contents and meaning of senior civil servants system.Chapter six probe into the New Public Management reform of Australia and Canada. Reform of Australia consists several aspects: financial reform, optimization of government function and civil service reform. Reform of Canada goes through as following: the course of reform, the specific content of reform—Muluoni government, Campbell government and Christian government, and public service reform as representative of reform.On the basis of specific analyzing of New Public Management reform in five nations, Chapter seven discusses the Anglo-Saxon model and the influential factors of New Public Management. First, Anglo-Saxon model is being compared with other administrative models and traditions, its traits are analyzed too. Based upon this, the model and influential factors of new public management are being analyzed. Then this chapter analyses several influential factors: political system, guidance thought and administrative culture, administrative department and implementation process of reform, and appraises the actual results of the reform in five nations.