Organizational models and public management reforms

Abstract

This article is based on a bibliographical research both in classic and recently published textbooks and in scientific papers in the literature of public administration in Europe and the United States. Its main objective is to compare the four organizational and relational models that have been inspiring the design of structures and processes in recent public management reforms: the bureaucratic model, the new public management, the entrepreneurial government, and public governance. Recently, there has been a progressive shift from the bureaucratic model to these new organizational and relational models. This article demonstrates that new organizational and relational models share important characteristic with the traditional bureaucratic model and, therefore, are not models of rupture. Also, public management reforms can easily become symbolic policies when politicians and public officials strive to manipulate the public's perception of the administration's performance. Public management reform efforts related to self-promotion and rhetoric rather than to concrete results are a common fact. Finally, the article proposes items for a research agenda for those who are interested in public management.