German regional administrative elites, new public management and the role of the state in the economy

Abstract

Is there any link between the intensity of NPM reform at the system level and individual attitudes among administrative elites implementing public management modernization in their daily professional lives? To investigate this question, the article maps the preferences for government versus market-based solutions in economic policy among German administrative elites at regional level (regio-crats) and 1) compares German elite attitudes with those of their counterparts in ten other EU member states and 2) analyses their determinants at the individual level. We find that German regio-crats occupy an intermediate position on a scale ranging from state interventionism to free-market solutions. Our cross-country comparisons suggest that when the economy is doing well and unemployment is down, bureaucrats are more likely to express a preference towards the free market. However, in times of economic crisis and high unemployment, civil servants turn back to the state. We also find that once NPM reforms have been implemented, regio-crats wish for a greater role for government, but when they yet have to implement NPM reforms, they seem to crave more free market.