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The Macro-Politics of Managerialism: Revisiting Weberian Perspectives

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Executive Politics in Times of Crisis

Part of the book series: The series ((EXPOLGOV))

Abstract

The ‘New Public Management’ (NPM) has dominated the literature on administrative reform for over two decades. Christopher Hood’s ‘A Public Management for All Seasons?’ article in Public Administration in 1991 is widely seen as the locus classicus of the NPM-word. Hood’s description of the key doctrines characterizing NPM has been widely adopted and cited. Less attention has been paid to a further aspect of Hood’s original argument, namely the conditions under which particular doctrines rise and fall in their popularity. One particular explanation, according to Hood, was to see the rise of NPM-related doctrines as a ‘response to a set of special conditions developing in the long peace in the developed countries since World War II’, namely changes in income level and distribution weakening the coalitions for government growth; changes in the socio-technical system combined with the development of ‘post-Fordist’ technologies affecting the organization of work; a shift towards ‘new machine politics’ with new form of campaigning through intensive opinion polling; a turn towards ‘a more white-collar, socially heterogeneous population less tolerant of “statist” and uniform approach in public policy’ (Hood 1991: 7).

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Authors
  1. Philippe Bezes
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

    Martin Lodge (Professor of Political Science and Public Policy) (Professor of Political Science and Public Policy)

  2. Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, Germany

    Kai Wegrich (Professor of Public Policy and Administration) (Professor of Public Policy and Administration)

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© 2012 Philippe Bezes

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Bezes, P. (2012). The Macro-Politics of Managerialism: Revisiting Weberian Perspectives. In: Lodge, M., Wegrich, K. (eds) Executive Politics in Times of Crisis. The Executive Politics and Governance series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137010261_4

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