We would like to suggest that, beyond these separate
critiques, what is missing is a set of organizing principles
for an alternative to the New Public Management. We re-
ject the notion that the reinvented, market-oriented New
Public Management should only be compared to the old
public administration. which, despite its many important
contributions, has come to be seen as synonymous with
bureaucracy, hierarchy, and control. If that is the compan-
son, the New Public Management will always win. We
would like to suggest instead that the New Public Man-
agement should be contrasted with what we term the “New
Public Service,” a set of ideas about the role of public ad-
ministration in the governance system that places citizens
at the center.