The "Old" Public Management versus the "New" Public Management: Where Does Public

Administration Fit in?

Author(s): Norma M. Riccucci
Source: Public Administration Review, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Mar. - Apr., 2001), pp. 172-175
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Society for Public Administration
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Norma M. Riccucci
at Albany
University

The "Old" Public ManagementVersus the

"New" Public Management:Where Does
Public Administration
Fit In?

LarryLynn'spiece, "TheMythof the BureaucraticPara- philosophicalunderpinningsof the NPR, which, they ar-
digm,"is provocativeto say the least. I come to this admis- gued, confutethe fundamentalprinciplesof democracyand
sion not becauseof the overwhelmingpopularityof Lynn's constitutionalrule. Centralto their argumentwas thatthe
work or my enduring "affection for the author or ... the NPR's call for a shift from administrativebureaucracyto
prestige[this] authorconfers on the field" (Lynn, 145; see entrepreneurialorganizationsignores the very nature of
also Karl 1976), but because of the intellectualmerit the democraticgovernmentand how it evolved in the United
essaydemonstrates.I couldn'tagreemorewithLynn'sover- States (Goodsell 1993).
all premiseand his conclusionthat the traditionalbureau- Moe (1994) points out thatthe NPR fails to accountfor
craticparadigmof public administrationhas proven to be critical differences between the government and private
much more responsiveto democraticvalues than has the sectors,and,in particular,ignorestheconstitutionalpremise
revisionists'new, customer-orientedmanagerialism.And, thatgovernmentis based on a rule of law and not market-
not to be overlooked,for an "outsider,"Lynn (152) pro- drivenmechanisms.He statesthat"thegovernmentof the
vides a respectableand comprehensivereview of the intel- United Statesis a governmentof laws passedby the repre-
lectualheritageof the field of publicadministration. sentatives of the people assembled in Congress. It is the
Thatsaid,I fundamentallydisagreewithmanyof Lynn's constitutionalresponsibilityof the Presidentand his duly
assertions.In particular,I disagreewith one of his central appointedandapprovedsubordinatesto see thatthese laws,
theses:thatstudentsof publicadministrationhave failed to wise and unwise, are implemented"(112). The "subordi-
adequatelychallengethe New Public Management.I also nates"would, in turn,be accountableto the president,not
take issue with anothertheme thatruns,perhapsmore ob- customers of governmentagencies, for the execution of
liquely,throughoutLynn'spiece:themethodologicalclaims the laws of the land.
and interestsof the New Public Managementas compared For Moe, the bottomline is the supremacyof an institu-
with those of the "old" public management.Here, Lynn tionalpresidency,wherethe presidentrelies on the consti-
seems to suggest that,due to a traditionof being "unduly tutionalpowers grantedto the executive office in govern-
careless,"not only the New Public Managementbut the ing the country.This contrastswith what Nathan (1983)
broaderfield of publicadministrationitself "seemsto have called the administrativepresidency,where the president
let lapse [its] moralandintellectualauthority"(145, 155). exerts controlover the bureaucracyby administrativefiat,
Let me begin by partingcompany with Lynn's asser- and,as some have argued,by circumventingrules, regula-
tions that traditionalpublic administrationwas unable to tions, the law, and Congress's constitutionaljurisdiction
mounta sound,meaningfulchallengeto revisionistthought over the bureaucracy.
advancedby the New Public Management.On the con- Similarly,Carroll(1995) sees the political objective of
trary,a numberof public administrationistsvirulentlyat- the NPR as changing the balance of power, control, and
tackedthe New Public Management,particularlyits rein-
venting government or National Performance Review NormaM.Riccucci isa professoranddirectorof thePh.D.programinpub-
licadministration
andpolicyat theRockefellerCollegeof theUniversity
at
(NPR) manifestations.For example, there were many at- Albany,StateUniversity of NewYork. Shehaspublished inthe
extensively
tacks against the NPR on the groundsthat it failed to ac- areasof publicmanagement, employment discrimination
law,affirmative
count for the realpolitikof government(see, for example, action, andpublic-sector
PublicSectorWorkforces
laborrelations.
is forthcoming
HerbookManaging
fromWestview
Diversity
in
Press.Hercurrent
Carroll1995;Frederickson1996;Moe 1994; Rosenbloom researchfocuseson themanagement capacityof stateandlocalgovern-
mentsto
1993). In particular,many challenged the theoreticaland law.E-mail: implementtheWelfare-to-Work provisionsprescribed
by federal
riccucci@albany.edu.

172 Public Review* March/April

Administration 2001,Vol.61, No.2

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
authorityover the federal bureaucracy.A presumptionof
power would rest in the executive branch,and Congress
would have little or no role in executive administration.
The constitutionaldoctrineof separationof powers would
give way to absoluteexecutive powerover the administra-
tive state. Carrollarguesthatthe NPR
[C]onvertsgovernmentinto an instrumentof service
consumption,ignoring the roles of governmentin
resolving conflicts, setting nationalgoals, control-
ling use of force in society, investing in the nation's
future,andpursuingconstitutionalvalues andpolicy
objectives which have little if anythingto do with
service or with satisfying customers.... It neglects
the realityof shared,common needs that cannotbe
definedorrealizedby satisfyingindividualconsumer
desires. It convertsthe citizen into a customerwith
littleresponsibilityto the community....Government
exists to satisfyimmediateindividualcomplaintsand
desires irrespectiveof the presentor futureneeds of
the nation.(309)
He concludes, "In treatinggovernmentas a Wal-Mart,
the NPR ignores the fact that many operationalassump-
tions based on customer service have implications for
broadersystems of values such as the rule of law, repre-
sentative government,separatedand sharedpowers, and
individualliberty"(310).
Frederickson(1996), in a discerningpiece, contraststhe
values of the NPR with those advancedby the New Public
Administrationmovement,which began in the late 1960s.
The main themerunningthroughhis analysisis thatwhile
the new publicadministrationemphasizedthe positive role
of public service in our society, the NPR espouses an anti-
bureaucratic thesis and promotes bureaucratbashing.
Fredericksonnotes thatalthoughuhthis bashingis denied
[in the NPR], the public service is routinely held up to
ridiculein the reinventionmovement.Whenthis is pointed
out to reinventionadvocates,they reply,'We areonly ridi-
culing bureaucracy,not bureaucrats.We believe bureau-
crats are good people trappedin bad systems.' However
well meaningthis distinction,it is lost on virtuallyall care-
ful observers"(267, emphasisin original).
Manycriticsof the reinventionmovementacknowledge
thateffortshave historicallybeen made to increaseexecu-
tive power at the expense of othercriticalvalues within a
democraticstate(see, Kaufman1956;Rosenbloom 1983).
FromRoosevelt's Keep Commissionin 1905 to Reagan's
Grace Commissionin 1982, presidentshave traditionally
sought to improve governmentefficiency and effective-
ness by strengtheningthe powers of the executive branch.
But, they note that one fundamentalprinciple of demo-
craticrulehad alwaysbeen preserved:accountability.The
NPR, as Moe concludes, "representsan intentionalbreak
in management philosophy from earlier organizational
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
managementstudiesgoing backto the ProgressiveEraand
indeed, in a very real sense, back to the founding of the
Republic"(1994, 112).
PerhapsDavid Rosenbloom said it all in the title of his
1993 Public AdministrationReview article,"Havean Ad-
ministrativeRx? Don't Forget the Politics!"As he notes,
the advancementof administrativeprescriptionshave his-
torically had popular appeal (see Lan and Rosenbloom
1992). However,reformsthatpromiseto reinventgovern-
ment by way of focusing on resultsand customersatisfac-
tion as opposed to administrativeand political processes
fail to accountfor legislative self-interest(see Rosenbloom
2000). Rosenbloom contends that "[e]ven if federal ad-
ministrationis reinvented....Congressmay manageto re-
inventits leverageover the agencies."In the end, he points
to "anold lesson: If we wantbettergovernment,we better
talk politics" (1993, 506).
And, lest we forget,therewas the rathercaustic, almost
contemptuousview of the NPR put forth by one of the
nation's premierprivate-sectormanagementgurus, Peter
Drucker.In a February1995AtlanticMonthlyarticle,"Re-
ally Reinventing Government,"Drucker obviously not
speakingfrom a traditionalbureaucraticview, had this to
say aboutthe NPR: "In any institutionotherthanthe fed-
eral government,the changesbeing trumpetedas reinven-
tion would not even be announced,except perhapson the
bulletinboardin the hallway.They are the kinds of things
thata hospitalexpects floor nursesto do on theirown; that
a bank expects branchmanagersto do on their own; that
even a poorly runmanufacturerexpects supervisorsto do
on theirown-without getting much praise, let alone any
extrarewards"(50).
In any event,I'm not quitecertainLynncan legitimately
claim thattraditionalpublic administrationists failed to ad-
equatelycontestthe New Public Management,therebyat-
tenuatingourintellectualheritage.Perhapsif one looksmore
closely,one mightfind additionalpropositionsbeingoffered
by Lynn.Forexample,do his criticismshavemoreto do with
lackof analyticalcachetand"intellectual authority" thanwith
thephilosophicalmeritbehindtheNew PublicManagement?
HasLynnset up a strugglebetweenthe"old"publicmanage-
ment and its call for analyticalrigor,and the New Public
Management, which has been charged with being too
"squishy,"furtherblurringnormative-empirical lines?
Froma traditionaliststandpoint,the old publicmanage-
ment, which emergedin the early 1970s as a result of dis-
satisfaction on the part of scholars in public policy and
public administration(Lynn 1996), might be viewed more
as an indictmentof the New Public Management'smeth-
ods ratherthan its scope. Like the charges against tradi-
tional public administrationby the behaviorists,old pub-
lic management,or at least a faction of it, questions the
New Public Management'smethodology from epistemo-
The"Old"
Public the"New"
Versus
Management Public 173
Management
 logical and axiological standpoints,seeking to reinforce homiletic (or principle/proverb-based) approaches.In his
what Simon initially told us in his celebratedAdministra- book,Lynntakesissue withtheworksof a numberof promi-
tiveBehavior(1947): Therecan neverbe a science of pub- nent folks, such as Bob Behn and Michael Barzelay,who
lic administrationfrom the viewpoint of practice, as Tay- approachpublicmanagementfroma homileticperspective.
lor (1911), Gulick and Urwick (1937), and others called He makes a not-too-flatteringreferenceto RichardNathan
for, but public administrationcan and should be studied as "an exemplarof the antianalyticalreductionistschool"
scientificallythroughthe applicationof rigorousmethods (Lynn1996, 86). Thus,it seems thatforLynn,the New Pub-
of the social sciences. lic Managementfails to maintainthepreceptssupportedand
Simon's fact-value dichotomy,which many public ad- advancedby the old publicmanagement-as he andothers
ministrationscholarsquicklylikenedto the politics-admin- defineit-and therefore,it has failed to advancethe field in
istrationdichotomy,becamea metaphorfor the tensionbe- termsof intellectualinquiry.
tween two approachesto studyingpublic administration. The convictionsurroundingthe notionthata proposition
One, urged first by the neoclassicistsand later old public has meaning only if it can be empiricallyassessed seems
managementtypes, is logical positivism, seen as the right somewhatmyopic. The scientific determinacyprescribed
way or the "onebest way"for conductingresearchin public by these old public managementtypes leaves the impres-
administrationor public management.The other way, the sion that "researchdoesn't count unless it counts."This
wrongway accordingto this factionin the old publicman- marginalizes,indeeddenies,a prodigiousandillustriousbody
agement,is anapproachthathashistoricallydominatedpub- of researchin publicadministrationandnow the New Pub-
lic administrativeresearch-descriptive, normative, and lic Management,includingcase studies(suchas, "best-prac-
sometimesatheoretical.It is mainlyqualitativeandseen as tice"research),whichhavebeenhighlyusefulforbothprac-
lackinganalyticrigorandhavingfailedto generatea strong tice andtheorybuilding(see deLeonandDenhardt2000). It
empiricalbase (see Thompson 1993, on critics of public also createstensionsin academicdepartmentsof publicad-
administration's methods). ministrationas they seek to define publicmanagementas a
The resultingdichotomyis empiricismversusprescrip- field of inquiryfor doctoralstudies.Even Wittgenstein,not
tion (or, alternatively,positivism versus metaphysics,sci- a memberof the ViennaCircle,butone of the mathematical
ence versus art or somethingto this effect). For the posi- philosopherswho inspiredthepositivistmovement,submit-
tivists, there is no room for metaphysical speculation, ted thatempiricismcould establishthatonly some facts ex-
reason,or innateideas, as the rationalistscalled for.Rather, ist. Moreover,as Spinoza and John StuartMill would tell
study must be inductive and based on value-free, ratio- us, by rejectingmetaphysicswe arealso rejectingthe possi-
nally-derived, testable hypotheses. Empirically based, bility of an ethical and moral foundationto society. I am
quantitativeresearchis the only way to seek and discover certainthatthe modem-daythinkersof ethics,morality,and
truthand reality. "administrative responsibility,"such as TerryCooper,John
Positivistsmaintainthatlogical andmathematicalpropo- Rohr,and JamesBowman,to mentiona few, would agree
sitions are tautological, and moral and value statements thatrationalismcontinuesto serve a vital role in public ad-
aremerely emotive. The goal of knowledge, they insist, is ministrationandpublicmanagementresearch.
simply to describethe phenomenaexperienced.Its under- My point here is by no means to issue a wholesale dis-
lying assumptionof empiricalcertaintyadmittedlygives missal of scientific empiricism;this, too, would be fatu-
it an air of seduction. But the doctrine of the old public ous and senseless. Rather,my purpose is to engage rea-
managementis a continuationand perpetuationof the be- sonable-minded scholars in public administration and
havioralmovementin political science and public admin- public management,new and old, in a dialogue on the
istration,which repudiatesthe traditionalparadigm-and importanceof accepting diversity in research methods.
now the New Public Management-from the standpoint There are many topics or issues in public administration
thatthey are not groundedin empiricism. and public management that do not appropriatelylend
In an earlierwork,Public Managementas Art, Science, themselvesto empiricalstudy;othersdo. Moreto the point,
andProfession(1996), Lynnseems to explicitlydojust that. the field would be more consonant with the recognition
As Beryl Radin accuratelystates in her jacket copy, Lynn that knowledge is derived from impressions both on the
"demystifies the field of public management .. ., navigating] intellect and on the senses.
throughits concepts,contradictions,andchallenges."While As Frederickson(2000) recently suggested, the field
Lynn does provide importantinsights into the conceptual can greatly benefit from "a rapprochementbetween the
scope of public management,as Allison (1980) seminally ... administrative sciences and the humanities." He goes
but inchoatelydid two decades ago, a centralthesis of his on to say that "the analyticaltools of social sciences help
bookis thatthe field of publicmanagementmustgeneratea us knowhow organizationsoperateand how public man-
morepowerfullknowledgebase thanits currentnormative, agersfunction.But to know public organizationsandtheir

174 Public
Administration
Review* March/April
2001,Vol.61, No.2

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management is not to understandthem. Understanding
requires perspective, experience, judgment, and the ca-
pacity to imagine. These qualities have less to do with
analyticalskills andmoreto do with philosophy,language,
art, and reason"(52, emphasisin original).
Despite my disputewith the underlyingpremisesof the
scope of the New Public Managementand its consumer-
driven managerialism,I believe a solid body of research
has emergedon the New Public Management,particularly
as it pertainsto reinventinggovernmentandthe NPR. For
example, many supportedthe importanceof reform and
innovationin the federal governmentfrom a public man-
agement standpoint,though they did not necessarily sub-
scribe to the underpinningsof the NPR (see Thompson
andIngraham1996).As deLeonandDenhardt(2000) point
out, despite our sentiments about the reinventionmove-
ment,the existingbodyof researchcontributessignificantly
to politicaltheoryinsofaras it speaksto the natureof demo-
craticgovernancein our nation.
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Interestingly,even Lynnsees some value in the NPR and
thereinventinggovernmentmovement,despitehis view that
entrepreneurialism poses a threatto democraticrule. In an
article appearing the AmericanProspect (1994), Lynn
in
statedthatthe NPR "alreadyhas been catalytic,andpublic
administration is enlivenedby a palpablenew energy.Prop-
erly mobilizedon behalfof good policies, the movementto
reinventgovernmentwill enterthehistoryof administrative
reformas a useful step forward"(144).
Ultimately,I thinkLynnmisses the markin his conclu-
sions that public administrationor even public manage-
ment has somehow been denigratedby a new movement
that seeks to stake some claim in our collective intellec-
tual endeavor.The field will continueto sustainattackson
its heritageandits methodology,which can only strengthen
ratherthandiminishpublic administrationas a field of in-
quiry or as a profession (see Kettl and Milward 1996;
Rosenbloom 1983; Stillman 1991). This is, afterall, what
public administrationis all about.
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535-7.
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.1996. Public Managementas Art, Science, and Profes-
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Public
The"Old" Versus
Management Public
the"New" 175
Management