The eaGov blog

The assignment about NPM is progressing and i have arrived at a place where im puzzled about my NPM theory. The thing is, that it seems that NPM derives from a notion that the public sector isn’t doing their jobs in a propper maner and that it is too big ..enter private sector style management/marketization/de-bureaucratization. The public sector is too big and lazy and too bureaucratic. Therefore IT is the tool to minimize, rationaliz and make everything transparent, for everybody to see the in-efficient work of the public sector. Really this is a mistrust in the public bureau.

EGovernment derives from another notion, differentiate it self on different points, that is growing from the idea that IT is capable of democratizing a sector, meaning giving it back to the citizens, including them in various processes. I guess this i said to be a evolution/modernization of the public sector as we knew it, now applied with modern tools, processes reflecting the new paradigme that the internet brought to the world, feeding on the will of the people to take part. 

My question to you, reader: is this a “correct” way of picture it og is it too controversial? Im aware of the parts where the two notions share common grounds. Is this to black and white? Or is it simply the case, that the two can’t live without one another? Maybe the one is alive due to the other.. could it be?

If this is somewhat the case, I see why P. Dunleavy et.al (Digital Era Governance) and others say that NPM is “a dead fish in the water”, and that we need to look further .. to get to a governance model capable of holding the emerging technologies and their benefits.

Im in my office at ITU working on an assignment about New Public Management (NPM), being the current governance paradigme of many states. NPM is a notion that the known bureaucratic hierarci has slowed the every decision and, basically that the departements of the government is not efficient enough. The answer to these prayers is NPM, creating a quasi market, by putting great parts of the public sector to be managed by private companies, hens the public sector, being unproductive (not my take), should learn  to manage in a marked oriented way. Many authors (Dunleavy etc.) proclaim this not to be the case, since we are in a Internet age, where new paradigmes are the law of the land. 

Of course my optics are eGovernment, and I will be observing this from that angle, asking if NPM is the right way to make eGovernment. As of today i’ll be looking at interviewing a few with knowledge in the area of NPM and eGovernment 

If you have relevant insights on this topic or related, I’ll be pleased to hear from you!!