Why the New Public Management is Obsolete: An Analysis in the Context of the Post-New Public Management Trends

Abstract

In the 1980s and 1990s, the New Public Management (NPM) paradigm dominated the field of public administration. However, this paradigm, which integrates the principles of the private sector and business administration into the field of public administration, began to be criticised in the new millennium after a quarter century of domination. The criticisms soon turned into comprehensive challenges which emerged as the post-NPM trends. The aim of this paper is to explain what makes NPM obsolete within the framework of these criticisms. Five post-NPM trends and their starting points are examined: new public service (NPS), public value management (PVM), digital era governance (DEG), neo-Weberian state (NWS) and new public governance (NPG). The main method for the theoretical basis of the paper was to screen and evaluate secondary sources. As a result, the waves of criticism on NPM are seen to be transformed into pursuits for an alternative paradigm in the new millennium. These pursuits, common in many aspects and differing only in terms of their basic emphasis, are called post-NPM trends. They are based on the assumption that NPM is obsolete.