The New Public Service Managerialism: An Assessment

Abstract

The aim of this final chapter is to review the nature, origins and impact of the new managerialism in the new public services and to point the way to the future. There is no doubt that the boundaries of state activity, the orientation of the public services and the ways in which they are managed are significantly different in the 1990s from what they were in 1979. It is also evident that these changes will continue. With the Conservatives being returned to office for a fourth consecutive term in April 1992, new managerial initiatives are planned and new organisational responses to public pressures are being proposed. As John Major (1989, p. 3) said, when Chief Secretary to the Treasury: ‘the changes within our public services [ over the last decade ] amount to nothing less than a revolution in progress’. This has involved ‘two radical changes. First, the change from volume to cash expenditure planning, and second the strong devolutionary push in financial management.’ He described the system as one in which ‘Ministers and senior managers concentrate on setting policy objectives and the resources needed to meet them; and the individuals who deliver the services use their ability and skills to tackle the problems.’