New Public Management in Bangladesh: Policy and Reality

Farhana Ferdousi, Lisheng Qiu

Department of Political Economics, School of Economics & Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

DOI: 10.4236/ib.2013.53B032                

Abstract

New Public Management (NPM) is a management philosophy used by the government since 1980s to modernize the public sectors. Many developed and developing nations are now experimenting about the applicability of NPM in their context. In Bangladesh, NPM reform ideas have also been recommended by international donor agencies as well as numerous reform committees but yet the country has hardly made any progress in establishing effective public management. This paper attempts to identify some administrative reforms in Bangladesh that have the spirit of NPM as well some peculiarities that threaten successful implementation of NPM in Bangladesh. It is argued that state incapacity, bureaucratic failure and donor-driven reform policies are responsible for the failure of implementation of NPM in Bangladesh. Therefore, to establish efficient public management or to follow NPM model, Bangladesh need to have solid institutional frameworks, sound rule of law, proper control structures, appropriate checks and balances, effective civil service system, appropriate accountability and transparency; and for these political leaders, bureaucrats and donor-agencies have to work in line.

Keywords

New Public Management; Administrative Reforms

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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