Challenges for the New Public Management

Abstract

In developed countries, new public management (NPM) is typically used to improve existing institutions democratically where the bureaucracy is already controlled through agencies and institutions. However, in Mexico, it is being used as a top-down reform strategy where solid institutional frameworks, rule of law, checks and balances, civil service system, and accountability systems are all absent or ineffective. In the absence of robust institutions for administrative control and oversight, this use of NPM reform strategies faces two basic dangers: (a) overrelying on techniques over substantive reform and (b) underestimating the difficulty of changing the existing bureaucratic culture. Given the current political and institutional situation in Mexico, the most probable outcome of implementing NPM ideas is symbolic rather than actual change. That is, government is most likely to implement reengineering teams but to render them ineffective by retaining the existing vertical and authoritarian structure and culture. A case study evaluating Mexico City’s NPM-based administrative reform program is used to support these conclusions.