Party politics
Some commentators explain PPA’s demise in rather similar terms to the predator theorists of the dinosaurs’ extinction. The notion is that the old structure has been subverted by the development of “New Right” interests who stand to benefit in various ways from dismantling the PPA model
A response to fiscal stress and poor macroeconomic performance?
Another common way of interpreting the demise of the old PPA model is to link it with changing social conditions, akin to the “loss of habitat” theory of dinosaur extinction. New Public Management is often interpreted as a response to fiscal stress and resistance to extra taxes. Underlying the onset of such fiscal stress may be the changes in income level and distribution, weakening the “Tocqueville coalition” for government growth in the electorate;
However, if New Public Management is best explained as a response to fiscal stress and government overload, we might expect New Public Management to be most strongly developed in those countries which score highest on government spending and employment and/or have a history of relatively poor macroeconomic performance on the conventional indices of GDP growth, public debt levels, inflation and unemployment rates