A Brief Study Of Civil Serice Reform During The Margret Thatcher Administration-form The Perspective Of New Public Management

As the cradle of civil service, Britain stands under limelight of the world. The origin of British civil service can be traced back to crown's private servants early in history. At that time, civil servants did not enter government by competition, but were appointed by connections. As the civil service system developed, a mechanism of competition took place where applicants win position with merit. In 1979, British government pioneered to apply New Public Management ideology into civil service system. Britain's reform inspired heat of similar reforms worldwide and played the role of historical milestone.As British society developed, traditional bureaucracy system hindered the smooth running of government machine. To launch a reform on Civil Service system seemed the best way out. Therefore, New Public Management theory, absorbing core values of New Institutional Economics and managerialism, came into being to guide such a reform. NPM focus on efficiency, and recommends business running of public sector and discretion for executive agency. Once introduced into government, this theory showed its unique talents in solving inherent problems within system. A handful of researches have been done concerning Margret Thatcher, general discussion of New Public Management theory and British Civil Service system. However, very few of the scholars have probed into the pragmatic meaning of New Public Management by specifically studying British case. Therefore, this paper analyses the particular measures taken by Thatcher government with abundant data and examples and assesses the achievements along with inevitable problems produced by reform, in order to get universal experience for later reformers. Researches of this paper were carried out by ways of reading relevant books and documents, which mainly come from libraries.Britain set up a brilliant example in the area of Civil Service reform under guideline of New Public Management. Worldwide, other countries have tried to copy Britain's experience and ended up with mixed results. This paper compares China's realities with Britain's conditions, and tries to find out their similarities in terms of economical status, administrative mode, international settings, etc. Through analysis of real data, this paper seeks to crystallize experience from British example and apply it in China.