| This thesis explores the lineage of the New Public Management as a means of bringing into sharper relief its attributes as a form of governance. Drawing upon the work of Michel Foucault, it argues that the NPM constitutes less a paradigmatic event, than the unfolding of a managerial logic that is grounded in 'disciplinary' and 'pastoral' technologies. These underpinnings suggest a need to scrutinise the NPM's claims to a 'neutral' and 'apolitical' form of organisational practice designed to 'empower' both the organisational and political subject. In order to elaborate this discussion, this thesis will focus on the leading texts of both the 'new managerialism' and the New Public Management: Peters and Waterman's In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies (1982) and Osborne and Gaebler's Reinventing Government: How The Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector (1993). |
