Post-NPM Responses to Disaggregation Through Coordinating Horizontally and Integrating Governance

Abstract

As a result of decentring and the proliferation of central government agencies public sectors have become characterized by fragmentation, lack of coherence and attenuated central control. It is generally accepted that that the injunctions to disaggregate and devolve under the influence of new public management (NPM) maxims fuelled the movement towards distributed governance. In the post-NPM era there has been a counter-movement towards reintegrating the fragmented state by focusing on government as a whole and joining up the parts through horizontal (and vertical) coordination. Two processes are at work: countering the limitations of NPM and the search for balance between decentralized modes of operating and central needs for direction and control.