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The American Review of Public Administration
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The Irony of NPM

The Inevitable Extension of the Role of the American State

John Bumgarner

United States Government Accountability Office, Virginia Beach, VA

Chad B. Newswander

Virginia Tech

Government delivery mechanisms and services are increasingly being shifted to the private sector where executive values of efficiency and effectiveness reign supreme whereas legislative and judicial institutional values are confined to traditional government agencies. New Public Management (NPM) has ironically initiated a process of diffusing legislative and judicial institutional values into the contract state through reactive legislative enactments and judicial opinions that attempt to reinforce the constitutional character of public action. An integration of NPM and legislative and judicial constitutional values is sought to reach a balancing point in the American state. Last, prescriptions are provided for Congress, the judiciary, and public administrators to reach a balancing point that will ensure the protection of constitutional values while valuing effectiveness and efficiency. Thus, NPM may create a potential paradox—rather than the state becoming minimalist in nature, NPM will increase the influence of the state through the diffusion of constitutional values.

Key Words: New Public Management • constitutional governance • contracts

This version was published on March 1, 2009

The American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 39, No. 2, 189-207 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0275074008315372
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