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TEXT I

In Europe, Weber still rules

Statecrafting

Jul 13, 2016

Steven Van de Walle

True, many tools and management practices associated with the NPM such as staff performance talks or management by objectives have become very common. Across all countries, the almost 7000 top civil servants we surveyed list achieving results and ensuring an efficient use of resources among the most important roles they have. They are also in agreement that, compared to five years ago, the public sector has made major progress in terms of efficiency and service quality — two main objectives of the NPM.

There are ‘NPM champions’ — countries that have gone further than others in reforming the Weberian state. Think the UK or the Netherlands, where public employment is increasingly normalised, and delivery contracted out. But even there, the structures of traditional public administration remain firmly in place.

Some elements of the NPM are still mainly absent from current management practice in European countries. Internal steering by contract is not very common, and performance related pay is very rare despite the popularity in reform talk. The weak presence of flexible employment also shows that the Weberian model still dominates. Despite attempts to normalize public employment in some countries, civil servants still enjoy a unique statute. We also observed this during the fiscal crisis, where outright firing permanent civil servants or cutting salaries has been relatively rare.

For civil servants, referring issues upwards in the hierarchy is still the dominant response in situations when responsibilities or interests conflict with that of other organisations. European top civil servants consider the impartial implementation of laws and rules as one of their dominant roles, and largely prefer state provision of services over market provision, with the exception of the British, Danish, and Dutch.

There are clear country differences, with management ‘champions’ such as the UK, Estonia, Norway and the Netherlands, and more legalistic and traditional public administrations such as in Austria, France, Germany, Hungary and Spain. The adoption of newer reform ideas suggest that the Weberian state may now be in decline. Yet some of the other findings of the survey, reported above, show that Weberianism’s main ideas are still deeply embedded in European countries.

(Source: https://statecrafting.net/in-europe-weber-still-rulesa851866dbf02. Retrieved on January 21st, 2018)