Evaluating Administrative Modernization in German Local Governments: Success or Failure of the "New Steering Model"?

This article evaluates the results and impacts of administrative modernization in Germany after more than 10 years of New Public Management experience, concentrating on the most advanced level of public sector reform: local authorities. Drawing on a broad empirical basis, the authors pursue the foll...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public administration review 2008-09, Vol.68 (5), p.851-863
Main Authors: Kuhlmann, Sabine, Bogumil, Jörg, Grohs, Stephan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Administrative Organization
Bureaucracy
Cities
Councils
Educational Change
Empirical research
Evaluation
Executives
Failure
Federal Republic of Germany
Germany
Government budgets
Government reform
Governmental reform
Institutional Evaluation
Institutionalism
Local Government
Management
Mayors
Modernization
Outsourcing
Political reform
Political systems performance
Politics
Public administration
Public policy
Public Sector
Recent Administrative Innovations Abroad and at Home
Reform
Reforms
Social Action
Steering
Studies
Success
Weber, Max
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Summary:This article evaluates the results and impacts of administrative modernization in Germany after more than 10 years of New Public Management experience, concentrating on the most advanced level of public sector reform: local authorities. Drawing on a broad empirical basis, the authors pursue the following questions: Do "Weberian" administrative structures and processes continue to characterize the German public sector, or have the reforms left behind lasting traces of a managerial administration? Are local authorities performing better today, and if so, can this be attributed to the New Public Management modernization? The presented results show that no paradigm shift from the "Weberian" bureaucracy to New Public Management has occurred so far. Performance improvements notwithstanding, the new mix of steering instruments causes numerous unintended consequences, causing "Weberian" administration to reemerge.
ISSN:0033-3352
1540-6210
DOI:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2008.00927.x