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Paradigms and Unintended Consequences: New Public Management Reform and Emergency Planning in Swedish Local Government

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Policy Paradigms in Theory and Practice

Part of the book series: Studies in the Political Economy of Public Policy ((PEPP))

Abstract

What is puzzling about paradigms, according to Hall (1993) and others, is primarily how and why policies change over time through processes of social learning. While this perspective has been influential in revisiting state-centric theories of policymaking, it leaves important questions about policy paradigms unanswered. One of the questions that have not yet received much theoretical and empirical attention is how paradigmatic policy reforms are actually received by public managers in their everyday work. Do managers embrace emergent paradigms by complying with new directions, rules, and practices, or do they set on a conservative course of alienation and resistance? And what factors may account for these differences? These questions are at the center of this chapter.

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Authors
  1. Daniel Nohrstedt
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland

    John Hogan (Lecturer) (Lecturer)

  2. Simon Fraser University, Canada

    Michael Howlett (Professor) (Professor)

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© 2015 Daniel Nohrstedt

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Nohrstedt, D. (2015). Paradigms and Unintended Consequences: New Public Management Reform and Emergency Planning in Swedish Local Government. In: Hogan, J., Howlett, M. (eds) Policy Paradigms in Theory and Practice. Studies in the Political Economy of Public Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137434043_8

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