Between Democracy and Efficiency: Trends in Local Government Reform in the Netherlands and Germany

Hendriks, Frank; Tops, P.W.

doi:10.1111/1467-9299.00147

Cited by 57 publications

(25 citation statements)

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“…Output steering, product-based budgets, performance indicators and BBI (shorthand for a set of financial-management instruments), became buzzwords. If budgets were based on products; if transparent methods of passing on costs were used; and if a sophisticated system to supply administrative information were introduced, politics would, it was thought, be better able to steer the policy production process (Hendriks and Tops 1999).…”

Section: Npm In Dutch Local Governmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local public management reforms in the Netherlands: fads, fashions and winds of change

Hendriks

Tops

2003

Public Administration

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Compared to other continental European countries, especially Germany and Switzerland, which have experimented with New Public Management (NPM) in local government, The Netherlands has been relatively quick in following trends stemming from Anglo-Saxon management thinking, but also relatively quick in redressing its course. The rise of the New Public Management in Dutch local government has been relatively swift and strong but also relatively superficial and non-committal. The dominant picture that emerges is one of an administrative system that, while responsive to the latest trends, is also surprisingly stable. Management reforms, forcefully advocated in the 1980s, were decisively revised and redressed in the 1990s, with the city of Tilburg, celebrated for its 'Tilburg Model', a case in point. The Werdegang of NPM (that is, how things developed) in Dutch local government, detailed in this article, can be understood only partially as a result of changing economic and budgetary constraints. The article shows that endogenous features of the Dutch politico-administrative system -more specifically: the compact, dense and decentralized pattern of the intergovernmental network, the administrative tradition of pragmatism, dynamic conservatism and the comparatively technocratic character of local government -have also strongly influenced the reception, effect and correction of NPM in Dutch local government.

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Section: Npm In Dutch Local Governmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local public management reforms in the Netherlands: fads, fashions and winds of change

Hendriks

Tops

2003

Public Administration

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“…Finally, mention may be made of the East Central European countries which, in overcoming the overly centralist and 'law-nihilist' legacy of the communist past and in linking up with their own pre-communist traditions, have set about establishing a rule of law regime, a robust (Max Weberian) public administration and a strong local government level; it may well be argued that the institution building and modernization trajectory of these countries has a historical and structural kinship with the Continental European countries, not least Germany, rather than with the Anglo-Saxon world. Hendriks and Tops 1999 for their intriguing observation that in Germany local governments when, in the early 1990s, they embarked upon administrative modernization under an economically accentuated New Steering Model seem to have to some extent copied an earlier version of the 'Tilburg model', while at that time in Tilburg itself the pendulum had already swung back to a more participatory approach with regard to which some guidance is seen in the earlier 'participatory' phase in Germany (see Hendriks and Tops 1999, pp. 143 ff.…”

Section: Summarizing and Concluding Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local Government Modernization in Germany: Between Incrementalism and Reform Waves

Wollmann

2000

Public Administration

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In taking a historical‐institutionlist approach, this paper looks at the development of administrative reforms in German local government which, because of the comparatively high degree of political and administrative decentralization of the Federal Republic has played a crucial role in the latter’s entire politico‐administrative setting and, hence, in its institutional reforms. The paper mainly identifies three stages in the post‐war development of administrative reforms. During the ‘planning movement’ of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Germany’s local level government and administration underwent significant and, to a considerable degree, lasting institutional changes. The 1980s were a period of incrementalist adaptation. Since the beginning of the 1990s, conspicuously later than in the Anglo‐Saxon and Scandinavian countries, but earlier and faster than the federal and the Länder levels, Germany’s local government has embarked upon dramatic changes particularly on two scores. First, in a growing number of municipalities and counties, administrative modernization was incorporated under the heading of a ‘New Steering Model’ (NSM) that largely drew on the dominant international New Public Management (NPM) debate. The dynamics of the ongoing administrative reforms are marked by an ‘amalgamation’ of NPM/NSM and earlier (‘traditional’) reform concepts. Secondly, at the same time, the political institutions of local government have under‐gone a significant shift as a result of the introduction of direct democratic procedures (direct election of mayors and heads of counties, binding local referenda). The paper argues that it is this co‐incidence and co‐evolution of administrative and political reforms that make for the peculiarity of Germany’s current modernization trajectory, distinguishing it from the Anglo‐Saxon and, to a lesser degree, from the Scandinavian modernization paths.

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“…Helsingin Sanomat uses mechanical catch phrases like 'New technology is needed and caring hands from abroad' (January 30, 2008). According to Hendriks & Tops (1999), the economic efficiency that drove the first wave of neoliberal NPM reform in continental Europe in the 1980s was criticized for its lack of attention to democracy and citizen participation. A second wave of NPM reform in the 1990s then focused more on participation and interactive decision-making (Hedriks & Tops, 1999).…”

Section: Weather Vanes Of the Market Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

Outsourcing Equality: Migrant Care Worker Imaginary in Finnish Media

Nordberg

2016

NJWLS

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Between Democracy and Efficiency: Trends in Local Government Reform in the Netherlands and Germany

Cited by 57 publications

References 10 publications

Local public management reforms in the Netherlands: fads, fashions and winds of change

Local public management reforms in the Netherlands: fads, fashions and winds of change

Local Government Modernization in Germany: Between Incrementalism and Reform Waves

Outsourcing Equality: Migrant Care Worker Imaginary in Finnish Media

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