ABSTRACT
In 1991, Christopher Hood wrote an article entitled ‘A Public Management for All Seasons?’ about how New Public Management (NPM) challenged fundamental features of the public sector (Hood 1991). Indeed, an array of managerial and organizational mechanisms inspired by private sector practice has since invaded the public sector. Firstly, greater emphasis has been put on efficiency – although efficiency is hardly a new value in public sector reforms. Secondly, the mechanisms to achieve efficiency have been altered. NPM introduced a new conception of the modern public sector and modern public organization that did away with hierarchy, monolithic systems, politically neutral administrative bodies, standardized personnel systems and standardized regulation of citizens and companies for the benefit of a market-like, deregulated system of pseudo-corporate, autonomous service producers and enthusiastic public managers (Peters and Wright 1996, Brunsson and Sahlin-Andersson 2000, Peters 2001b). Thirdly, NPM brought us a new time spirit including a changed perception of humankind. Neo-liberalism provided this development with an ideological soundboard, which favoured values such as freedom of choice and individuality in sharp contrast to collective solutions and solidarity but in accordance with the rational choice approach which models reality on the assumption that people seek to maximize personal benefit given the rules of the game.
