| This thesis explores the political economy of bureaucratic change, specifically the reform movement known as the "new public management" (NPM) or, more colorfully, "reinventing government." This movement has two characteristics that differentiate it from other recent bureaucratic reforms: 1. It is global in scope, at least so far as OECD countries are concerned, and 2. It appears to be independent of political ideology, since both conservative and liberal governments have implemented these reforms.;This thesis systematically examines the theoretical foundations and controversies associated with the NPM. It will pay particular attention to the influence of the new economics of organization on the evolution of the NPM. Its main focus will be on a comparative analysis of the determinants of the implementation of this particular reform. Although the NPM is global in scope, for my purposes, fortunately, not every member of the OECD has embraced identically the same set of doctrines, applied them with the same rigor, or achieved the same results.;Section I of the thesis examines the controversies within the rational choice paradigm in accounting for bureaucratic choice. The traditional rational-choice view holds that bureaucratic behavior is seldom strategic, except in interactions with nominal principals, and is strictly governed by self-interest. However, Herbert Simon and his students have developed a model of bureaucratic behavior based on the theory of bounded rationality: the so-called organizational process model. This piece explores the organizational process model as applied to budgeting and asks the questions: "What do these two approaches have to say about bureaucratic change and which approach is more consistent with recent events?";Section II explores reinvented bureaucracies utilizing basic methods from new institutional economics. The populations analyzed are the 121 US Department of Defense Reinvention Laboratories. Variables of interest include operations, hierarchical form, and the nesting of culture, norms, and social characteristics both before and after reinvention reforms.;Section III examines the environmental factors that affect reinvention efforts within the US Department of Defense Reinvention Laboratories. The primary focus of this paper is on the practical lessons drawn from this experience and highlights the necessary conditions that are required to make substantial and sustainable organizational changes in a military operation. These conditions include factors such as commitment at the top of the organization, a meaningful clear vision, organization wide understanding of the vision, a sense of urgency, performance measures, and institutionalization of continuous improvement among other factors. Without one or more of these factors reinvention will not accomplish its goals in any meaningful way. |
