Classical Ideas of Public Administration, Simon’s Challenge, and the Outbreak of New Public Management

Abstract

This research paper aims to explore the question: Why has the New Public Management (NPM) emerged despite the strength of the Classical Public Administration (CPA) theories to explain the administrative science of the modern state? A theoretical and conceptual framework based on Waldo (1955) and Gruening (2001) has been presented in this paper to explore the research question by reviewing the existing literature. This article critically revisits the classical ideas of public administration, honing in on the Weberian ideal type of bureaucracy. It examines the challenges posed by Simon to the earliest ideas of public administration especially the ‘ideal type of bureaucracy’ compared with other scholars’ works and identifies the drawbacks of the classical theories that ultimately led to the outbreak of the New Public Administration (NPA) or the NPM. This research argues that the emergence of the NPM is primarily based on classical public administration theories. Its outbreak was essential to facilitate the cooption of modern state governing instruments and techniques with the challenges arising from the changing circumstances in the modern state that are limited in the existing theories of CPA.

Social Science Review, Vol. 41(2), December 2024, pp. 119-136