Symposium on Public Management Reform and E-Government

Abstract

Among the issues debated presently by public management scholars and practitioners is whether the wave of New Public Management-oriented reform in nations around the world has passed the crest and is now in decline. It is difficult to generalize across nations and within nation states on this issue because the evidence is mixed. Alternative arguments are made by participants in this symposium to the effect that NPM (a) is in decline, (b) is still on the rise, (c) has entered the phase of implementation, which takes much longer and is more difficult to evaluate. Proponents of the third view indicate that the phase of political rhetoric and initial NPM program development is over in most contexts. Emphasis is now placed upon attempting to making changes instituted in the past decade work as intended to deliver results to meet the expectations articulated widely at the beginning of the reform era. Other issues related to why NPM developed as it has, and how it has been put into practice are articulated by participants in this dialogue. One issue given particular attention is the role and impact of e-government as a complement to or an integral part of NPM.