Trends in Public Administration after Hegemony of the New Public Management

Abstract

The paper’s goal is to advance at understanding of the public management framework after decades of administrative reform under the New Public Management (NPM) hegemony. Based on a broad literature review, the paper maps trends in terms of principles and guidelines and indicates that post-NPM is a process of continuity rather than a disruption with the previous paradigm. The implementation processes of the management trends, as well as in the NPM, are presented in different ways, varying according to the context and institutional framework of each government. The article concludes that the most emblematic characteristic of the contemporary public administration is the prevalence of the governance phenomenon that, in different formats, encompasses most of the post-NPM principles and guidelines discussed in the literature. In this sense, the return of the State and the bureaucracy as protagonists is emphasized, however, far from the traditional hierarchical standard. The current role of the civil service focus on the direction of interdisciplinary skills, collaborative capacities, increasing accountability to society, as well as leadership with interactive components.