The UnPolitics of New Public Management in Ireland

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS AND DEMOCRATIC: GOVERNANCE, pp. 55-67, Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans and Jon Pierre eds., London: Routledge, 2010

23 Pages Posted: 28 Jan 2010 Last revised: 10 Dec 2011

See all articles by Niamh Hardiman

Niamh Hardiman

University College Dublin (UCD)

Muiris MacCarthaigh

Queen's University Belfast

Date Written: December 1, 2010

Abstract

Many of the principles and indeed the rhetoric of New Public Management proved attractive to both politicians and senior bureaucrats across the developed world as a remedy for problems in policy processes. Ireland shares many features of its constitutional structures and political practices with Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, all of them early and enthusiastic adopters of NPM. Some of the organizational and procedural changes in Irish public administration do indeed bear similarities to those we would expect to see as a result of adopting principles of NPM. However, we contend that surface impressions are misleading. Drawing on a time-series database of Irish state institutions, we show that organizational changes were not necessarily driven by NPM. The absence of strong political drivers meant that reform initiatives did not fundamentally alter the configuration of the Irish public administration. Many of the problems that NPM was intended to address are only now coming under scrutiny.

Keywords: public Sector, Public Administration, State institutions, Ireland

Suggested Citation

Hardiman, Niamh and MacCarthaigh, Muiris, The UnPolitics of New Public Management in Ireland (December 1, 2010). ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS AND DEMOCRATIC: GOVERNANCE, pp. 55-67, Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans and Jon Pierre eds., London: Routledge, 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1536207

Niamh Hardiman (Contact Author)

University College Dublin (UCD) ( email )

Belfield
Belfield, Dublin 4 4
Ireland

Muiris MacCarthaigh

Queen's University Belfast ( email )

25 University Square
Belfast, BT7 1NN
Ireland

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