Transforming Citizen Engagement In E- Governance Framework: A Conceptual Analysis

In this chapter, I will verify public management reforms in Japan. From the second half of the 1990s until the beginning of the 2000s, at timing that was approximately ten years later than that of Anglo-Saxon countries, many reforms that were influenced by New Public Management (NPM) were conducted in Japan as well. I will describe the characteristics of Japan’s public administration by following the process by which central and local governments accepted the ideas that support NPM and the methods that have been developed by those ideas. In parallel with NPM, reforms based on different paradigms from NPM, such as the Neo-Weberian State (NWS) and New Public Governance (NPG), were also conducted. I would like to indicate the prospects for public management reforms in the post-NPM era by clarifying the fact that Japan’s public administration is forming a hybrid governance system in which different reform paradigms co-exist in multiple tiers.

PurposeIn 2016, New Zealand's Ministry of Health introduced the System Level Measures Framework which marked a departure from health targets and pay-for-performance incentives towards an approach based on local, collaborative approaches to health system improvement. This exemplifies an attempt to “overwrite” New Public Management (NPM) institutional practices with New Public Governance (NPG). We aim to trace this process of overwriting so as to understand how attempts to change institutional practices were facilitated, blocked, translated and edited.Design/methodology/approachWe develop a conceptual framework for understanding and tracing institutional change towards NPG which emphasises the importance of discursive strategies in policy attempts to overwrite NPM with NPG. To analyse the New Zealand case, we drew on policy documents and interviews conducted in 2017–18 with twelve national key informants and fifty interviewees closely involved in local development and/or implementation of the SLMF.FindingsPolicy sponsors of collaborative approaches to health system improvement first attempted formal institutional change, arguing that adopting collaborative, quality improvement (NPG) approaches would supplement existing performance management (NPM) practices, to create a superior synthesis. When this formal approach was blocked, they adopted an approach based on informal persuasion of local organisational actors that quality improvement should supplant performance improvement. This approach was edited and translated by local actors, and the success of local implementation varied considerably.Research limitations/implicationsThis article offers a novel conceptualisation of public management institutional change, which can help explain why it is difficult to completely erase NPM practices in health.Originality/valueThis paper explores the rhetorical practices that are used in the introduction of a New Public Governance policy framework.

The literatures on public management and on the characteristics of policy instruments have developed independently. The two literatures should, however, be related, given that instruments are rarely capable of being effective in implementing policy without adequate management. Further, public management should be understood in the context of achieving policy goals and hence of a relationship to policy. This article makes a preliminary linkage of those two approaches to policy and administration. It demonstrates that each approach helps to illuminate the other and also helps to understand contemporary reforms in the public sector.

The object of this study is to assess administrative reforms and change from the point of view of theoretical administrative models of hierarchical (traditional) administration, New Public Management (NPM), and New Public Governance (NPG) in Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia. Normative models offer a critique of legacy administrative practices; their wholesale implementation is seldom practical or successful. Reforms framed as “modernization” in these countries over the past three decades have generally followed the principles of NPM. Although policy arguments for introducing elements of NPG can be observed in the studied cases, the paper argues that NPG’s rhetorical attractiveness for resolving perceived shortcomings of other models lacks specific implementation mechanisms that would be viable within the existing institutional framework of the studied countries. Factors, such as the relatively small size of Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia, and obvious benefits of EU integration, appear to have moderated reforms to a point that core institutional features have become stable, and are also similar among the three countries: the dominance of hierarchical administrative model with rigid separation of powers structure and strong courts that can adjudicate administrative decisions, with numerous NPM inspired “modernization” measures, including the introduction of various interactive public services. The paper’s findings support the idea that Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia are administrative systems that have stable core governance institutions, and national public administrations modernize various aspects of their operation by introducing elements of NPM and NPG within the executive, but not reviewing the basic setup of these institutions. From this point of view, the findings are in line with the assumptions of the normative model of Neo-Weberian State (NWS)

Over the past decades there has been a remarkable paradigm shift in Public Administration. Traditional Public Administration was in dire need for a change of a New Public Administration (NPA) approach in the 1980s. From early 2000s, the NPA began to be subjected to heavy criticism, which influenced public administration to take complete control of different reforms and approaches regardless of their diversity, complexity, hybrid and contradictory situations rather than offering the perfect approach and reform to the public sector. The New Public Management (NPM) and Post-New Public Management (Post-NPM) paradigms emerged in times whereby the NPA was already experiencing a massive deconstruction and reconfiguration of the public sector management. To scan and understand the remarkable paradigm shift in the field and practice of public administration, this study applies both NPM and Post-NMP to examine different views, principles, values and norms, and reform proposals for South African Public Administration. Methodologically, this study used qualitative research methods with the aid of secondary data to evaluate both the NPM and post-NPM paradigms, criticisms, arguments, challenges, and changes in public policy implementations. Recommendations are provided based on the existing challenges confronting the current public administration in South Africa. This study contributes to literature, new policy proposals and research within public administration.

The global environmental governance landscape is currently confronted with complex and pressing challenges, while rural road environments play a crucial role in providing essential services to rural ecosystems, making them a key factor in the success or failure of governance. Based on the 2018 China Labor Dynamic Survey Database (CLDS), this article approaches the issue from the perspective of rural environmental governance and uses the informal social networks of rural farmers as a starting point to construct an analytical framework for social capital and farmers’ willingness to engage in environmental governance. Additionally, to examine the close link between welfare policies and farmers’ participation in public affairs, this article specifically focuses on the potential moderating effect of government support (agricultural subsidies) and uses the instrumental variable method to mitigate its endogeneity. The study shows that: (1) Both improvements in social networks and social trust can promote farmers’ willingness to engage in environmental governance. However, in the process of social participation, exposure to cutting-edge green technologies is essential to precisely activate individuals’ willingness to engage in environmental governance. (2) In promoting individual farmer participation in environmental protection public affairs, it is crucial to emphasize the incentives provided by welfare policies, increase agricultural subsidies, and expand their depth and breadth of coverage. (3) Government departments should enhance the industrial vitality in the northeastern regions, accelerate industrial transformation, invigorate economic activity, and prevent population loss from causing disruptions in villages. In the western regions, context-specific cultural intervention measures should be developed. Through long-term and continuous “cultural governance” practices, a bottom-up, progressive approach should be adopted to stimulate public enthusiasm for participation in non-interest-driven public affairs and achieve self-sufficiency in the cultural field.

The popularity of New Public Management in the developed countries raises a question whether such a concept applicable in the Third World context. Relies on three focuses group discussion involving local bureaucrats, this article shows the desirability of New Public Management as model of local public administration, despite a strong awareness of the challenge they have to encounter.

Within the broader field of public administration, no topic has been more controversial in recent years than that of the new public management (NPM) or managerialism. Books, journals, conferences have abounded on this theme and its variants. As could be expected, there is much confusion, much argument, much in the way of contrary claims. There is even some doubt as to whether there is any change at all. For example, Lynn (1996) argues that he is skeptical as to whether new public management is an international phenomenon or even a phenomenon at all. From the perspective of the UK, New Zealand and Australia, such claims seem to fly in the face of what has happened. There has been a period of managerial reform unlike any other this century. While it can be argued that 'the pace of change is greater in some countries, for example New Zealand, Australia and the UK than in others, such as the US and Germany' (Nunberg, 1995, p. 4), this is only a partial answer. It is also possible, along with the institutional differences that might slow the pace of change, that the debate over the new public management shows a further decline in the explanatory power of public administration. From being a world leader over much of the twentieth century, public administration, particularly American public administration has been left behind. Practical inventions are evidenced more in other countries, while intellectual leadership may have passed to institutional economics. The May/June 1998 issue of Public Administration Review advertised a 'symposium* where a number of writers - including another article by Lynn (1998) - put forward their arguments about the new public management. While many cogent points are made, the overall point seems to be missed. At the same time as there is little more than academic debate in the US, the public services in other countries have been transformed and, in some cases, torn apart. There are theoretical changes of some moment in other countries that have not received the attention or understanding they deserve. Something has happened in recent years. Whether or not it is a change of paradigm, or mere reform, or even business as usual is open to debate. The aim here is to look at NPM from a parliamentary perspective, and more particularly an Antipodean one, where more change has occurred than in the US. Rather than the absence of marked change in the US - contra Osborne and Gaebler (1992) and Gore (1993) - being proof that the new public management is a flawed set of reforms, it is argued that what has happened is another kind of American exceptionalism. Despite being the original home of much of the theory behind NPM, particularly economic theory, the political system in the US diffuses and ameliorates major change of any kind. The effects of NPM can be seen more clearly in parliamentary systems where elected governments have far more effective power over their bureaucracies.

Today, the nexus of ´co-ordination – co-production – co-creation´ constitutes the new political prism through which the ´wicked issues´ of the public sector is re-imagined, and by calling forth new cooperative endeavors stressing shared problem solving, the welfare state might signal a shift in mode of governance from New Public Management (NPM) to New Public Governance (NPG). In this paper we inquire into an empirical example from the Norwegian healthcare sector, namely the implementation of healthcare communities (HCCs). Public healthcare is an essential part of the Nordic welfare state model. Being a multi-dimensional policy field, it is notoriously characterized by both ´wicked issues´ and complexity – in terms of service provision, organizing and governing. Often patients require several healthcare services from multiple providers. In Norway, healthcare is organized in two main parts, primary (municipalities) and specialized healthcare (central government). While this division in theory should lead to a clear assignment of tasks and responsibilities, it has built-in challenges of lack of continuity of care and the risk of services being fragmented. Furthermore, the NPM-reforms during the last three decades has contributed to organizational fragmentation. Problems of service and organizational fragmentation has served as a core focal point for several health sector reforms in Norway during the last three decades. The latest reform initiative is the implementation of 19 HCCs, where hospital trusts and municipalities, through imposed and formalized cooperation structures are expected to cooperate, as well as co-plan, service provision, aiming to make better, more efficient services, and give patients a more coherent and seamless experience. We are interested in why and how NPG-inspired ideas of collaboration and co-creation are translated and articulated into the specific institutional context of Norwegian healthcare, and whether the HCC reform imply an actual break with the NPM-logics – or rather represents more of a continuation adding an extra reform layer, so to speak. In this paper the following research question guides our inquiry: In which ways does the HCC reform as an expression of the New Public Government paradigm represent a break or continuation with New Public Management logics in the healthcare sector in Norway, and how are the concepts of co-design, co-creation and collaborative capacity framed and constructed as the remedy for fragmentation by the policy makers? Methodologically, this paper is based on critical discourse analysis of official documents central in the development of the reform, as well as a qualitative analysis of interviews with central and local actors, in addition to a study of relevant public governance literature.

The article analyzes the public policy, in particular the public policy of the customs administration, in scientific works. Public policy provides for a government plan and guiding strategy for solving a social problem, intervention, service delivery, and public works, as well as the limits of citizens’ responsibility to the state on specific issues. The public policy of the customs administration covers various sectors of national and international engagement. The article suggests taking more active care of the public, which makes it possible to really move from manageability to governance as a model of public administration, which involves citizens in making public decisions that are less hierarchical than in the Weber model, more transparent, and the citizen’s duty is to participate in public debates through exercises of public reasonableness. This requires critical thinking, culture, balance, and constant participation in public affairs and public policy. It is important to perceive participation as a political action and as a right, where the former implies recognizing it as a set of actions aimed at influencing the political process through voting, discussion, debate, even social protest, and the exercise of permanent civil control over the authorities. Therefore, the analysis of the impact of ideas on public policy is hindered by problems that arise due to inaccuracies in determining what ideas are, where they come from, when and how they change, and how to study them. By this time, ideologue scientists have provided us with classifications of different types of ideas (different levels of generality, from specific political programs to comprehensive cultures), as well as different ways of thinking about ideas (from positivist to constructivist approaches, emphasizing ideas as causes or constitutive elements of public policy). The use of this concept in various sub-disciplines resulted in its expansion to cover a range of phenomena and concepts, making it almost impossible to understand what is ideological and what is not. The above definitions are far from an exhaustive list, but they are more than enough to determine some of the main characteristics. In such circumstances, customs administrations as services that carry out and regulate international trade and the movement of goods face increasingly important and complex tasks. At the same time, customs administrations are expected to promote the development of international trade.

The two pillars of public health are health promotion and disease prevention. Based on a notion of governance in the state -local relation as changing from hierarchical via New Public Management (NPM) to New Public Governance (NPG), the governance of public health in Norway is contrasted to governance of public health in the other Nordic states: Denmark, Finland and Sweden. The article aims to present and discuss the governance of public health as it is played out in the state-local relationship. The method is to study central state documents in the four countries, as well as articles, research reports and papers on public health. The article shows that the governance modes (hierarchy, NPM and NPG) exist in parallel, but that their mechanisms actually vary in use. Legal, economic and informational mechanisms are, to a varying degree, in use. In Finnish and Swedish public health policies, health promotion is at the forefront; while Danish and Norwegian public health policies spur the local governments to carry out interventions to prevent disease and hospital admissions.

‘Classical’ public administration theories, principles and paradigms continually fascinate scholars given their relevance to government practices especially in Africa. As used here, ‘public administration’ (in lower case) denotes government activities whereas ‘Public Administration’, often associated with Woodrow Wilson’s renowned 1887 essay, refers to the subject matter. However, New Public Management (NPM) dominated Public Administration from the 1970s-1990s when it was replaced by ‘Governance’. This article examines Public Administration theory, practice and related theories and how the centuries-old discipline developed from their introduction, interpretation and application in the public sector during each era. It will conclude that these developments have had mixed consequences for Africa, on which the article focuses, owing largely to the effect of colonialism on the continent’s public administration. Using the selected examples of African countries’ experiences, this article relies on a qualitative and literature analysis of the issues discussed. Africa, like other ‘Third World’ or developing regions, is largely perceived as a consumer of the mostly western-dominated or inclined Public Administration, New Public Management and governance models which it inherited primarily through colonialism. Key words: Public administration theory, new public management, governance, Africa.

The study focused on the role played by public sector management in South Africa towards the country’s total development and improvement. This article also analyses how through the Whole School Evaluation (WSE) process, the education system in South Africa seeks to ensure that the schooling is effective. This paper examines public management, public administration as well as new public management (NPM). The aim is to illustrate a view of how education fits in the broader public management and how the WSE process assists schooling in South Africa and Mpumalanga in particular. This is to ensure that the schooling is effective and contribute towards service delivery and the country’s overall development and improvement. Furthermore, WSE as a process, is viewed through five of NPM undisputable and debatable characteristics of accountability for performance; performance measurement; performance auditing; policy analysis and evaluation; and strategic planning and management. Public management functions and public management principles are discussed from a point of how the WSE process strives to ensure that it complies with these function and principles, and how this compliance benefit school improvement. This paper came to a number of conclusions regarding education within public management from a WSE perspective. Firstly, education through the external WSE process conforms to this principle of New Public Management in that evaluation is aimed at improving the quality of education. Also, the external WSE, as a process, and education in general, through the NPM principles can be performed within public management. Furthermore, external WSE conforms to public management principles as well as Batho Pele principles.

There are evaluated the problems of welfare models relation to public administration models by presenting the notions of traditional-hierarchical, new public management and new governance models and their relation to welfare models. There are presented also the countries cases of social policy, which represent the “nearest states”– standing closest to “ideal welfare models”. The aim of the article is to analyse welfare states comparison possibilities and to what to refer in their comparison. There is stressed the difference between “ideal welfare states models” and these models, which are found in the real life. KEY WORDS: welfare state, social policy, public administration, new public management, new governance.

Performance management has become a ubiquitous part of public administration thanks to the New Public Management (NPM) reforms, which were introduced in Anglo-Saxon countries at the end of the 20th century and diffused later into different settings (e.g. the EU). It plays a central role in improving public sector management and fixing bureaucratic issues. This entry discusses the key ideas about performance management in public administration. It first demonstrates the background, definition and development of the concept of performance over the last decades. It examines the link between performance and NPM and the debate surrounding its definition and multi-dimensional nature in the public context. It briefly describes three successively evident multidimensional performance measurement frameworks: Inputs- Outputs-Outcomes (IOO), Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and Total Quality Management (TQM). The entry also notes the recent studies of identifying new dimensions for measuring performance. The entry concludes with a demonstration of the main challenges to integrating performance into public administration management.