Public Management and Administration - Owen E.hughes

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ecause public servants were too political, there might be demands to reinstate the notion of neutrality. However, politicization may not be that big a problem. One of the supposed strengths of the traditional model of administration was its refusal to acknowledge or be involved in politics. This was always naive and unrealistic, given that the administration of government is inevitably a political process in its own right. Public managers do involve themselves in politics, although not necessarily party politics, and this fact should be in the open. Instead of hiding behind a false neutrality, public managers should be clearer about the political costs and benefits of alternative courses of action. This might end up being ‘politicization’ of the worst kind, but could also be far more realistic and useful than was the case under the old system. Reduced accountability There is some concern as to whether the new managerial concepts and procedures fit in with the system of accountability (see Chapter 13). Conflicts may occur between the concepts of public management and public accountability. If the public servant is to be managerially accountable, this could be seen as detracting from the accountability of a responsible politician. And how can a citizen call a public servant to account? Accountability may become a real problem, although the old system was unrealistic and a very poor guarantor of accountability in any case. In addition, the managerial changes promise greater transparency, so that the achievements of particular programmes can be seen. This may actually improve accountability in that the public has a better idea of what governments are doing, while the greater external focus means its interests are more highly considered. Difficulties with contracting-out Public Management 67 While it is easy to argue private markets are superior and efficiencies will result from privatizing government activities, implementation is not simple. To make contracting-out actually work is different from thinking it is a good idea; there are awkward details to be worked through. It is all very well to call for ‘entrepreneurial government’ (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992), but this should be tempered with the realization that market solutions do not necessarily work well under all circumstances (Donahue, 1989, p. 223). It is one thing to pass activities from the public to the private sector, but quite another for them to work well. Simple ideological nostrums should be replaced by careful consideration of all the costs and benefits. Contracting out should be seen as another tool for public managers which may or may not be more efficient depending on the case. It is an alternative that the public manager may be able to adopt in a specific case
68 Public Management and Administration but ‘using it blindly and ideologically invites unnecessary controversy, while ignoring it reduces alternatives for improving services’ (Rehfuss, 1989, p. 228). Ethical issues According to Hood, the new public management ‘assumes a culture of public service honesty as given’ and ‘its recipes to some degree removed devices instituted to ensure honesty and neutrality in the public service in the past (fixed salaries, rules of procedure, permanence of tenure, restraints on the power of line management, clear lines of division between public and private sectors)’ and the extent to which the change ‘is likely to induce corrosion in terms of such traditional values remains to be tested’ (1991, p. 16). This possible erosion of ethical standards may be a real problem, especially as the reason for adopting many of the principles of the traditional model of administration was precisely to counter the corruption and inefficiency rife in early administration. Are there ways of improving or maintaining ethical standards while gaining the benefits of a managerial approach? It is hard to find a way that is convincing. Perhaps the new managerialism offers greater transparency so that unethical or corrupt behaviour can be detected more easily; the greater stress on measurable performance may impose its own kind of behavioural standard. Perhaps managers can be inculcated with the ethical standards common in the old model. Further, as there is supposed to be no change to political accountability, politicians will be responsible for ethical lapses in agencies under their control. The fact that ethical problems are unsolved in the private sector should be a caution to public managers. Corruption can be endemic and has serious consequences for the political system (deLeon, 1993). There are certainly opportunities for the unscrupulous in the managerial system, notably with contracting. Yet, as developing countries have shown, these also existed in the traditional model of administration in such areas as allocation of licences and permits, as well as government purchasing. Contracts are supposed to offer improvements in accountability, but contracts with government are often kept secret for commercial reasons so the transparency is not there in practice. As a result, ethical problems can be hidden. Whether greater ethical problems do occur as the result of managerialism will not be known for some time. However, if the benefit of the old system was its high standards of behaviour, its weakness was that results were only incidental. In current circumstances, governments will probably opt for the achievement of results and hope that greater transparency and freer availability of information will provide sufficient incentive devices for the maintenance of high ethical behaviour by managers. Implementation and morale problems Managerial changes have been instigated from the top, with insufficient attention paid to implementation. This has been a real problem, although in some
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Public Management and Administratio
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Also by Owen E. Hughes AUSTRALIAN P
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© Owen E. Hughes 1994, 1998, 2003
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Preface Over the past 20 years the
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viii Preface the Colorado link such
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7 Strategic Management Introduction
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10 E-government Introduction In the
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11 Managing External Constituencies
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12 Public Management in Developing
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13 Accountability Introduction The
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14 Conclusion: A New Paradigm for P
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284 References Borins, Sandford (19
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286 References Glor, Eleanor D. (20
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288 References Jordan, Grant (1997)
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290 References Monroe, Kristen Renw
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292 References Putt, Allen C. and S
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294 References Wilson, Graham K. (1
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296 Index bureaucracy 1-5, 9, 15-43
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298 Index information and communica
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300 Index ‘one best way’ thinki
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302 Index Ritter, G. 85, 86 role of
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