Schizophrenic Public Administration Reform in Hungary. Tension between anti-NPM systemic and pro-NPM organizational reforms

The aim of this paper is to shed the light on the relationship between New Public Management and Hungary’s Zoltán Magyary Public Administration Development Programme. As will be shown, the Magyary Programme has a dual structure. The systemic reforms run counter to the NPM philosophy because the main goal is the centralization of public administration, while NPM clearly advocates decentralization. At the same time, reform proposals on the organizational level conform to NPM. The inconsistencies in the Magyary Programme itself and the probable political and organizational resistance towards its proposals could delay the introduction of reforms on the organizational level.

Schizophrenic public administration reform in Hungary. Tension between anti-NPM systemic and pro-NPM organizational reforms

The aim of the paper is to highlight the main characteristics of the recent Hungarian public administration reform, as well as to reveal the inconsistent nature of some of its elements and to describe the connected risks. The starting point of the article is the Magyary Zoltán public administration development programme. The reform steps are compared to the ideal type NPM approach. The Hungarian public administration reform can be characterized by strong centralization and the revitalization of Hungarian anti-liberal traditions at macro level, and by the support of the enhancement of market rules and management at micro level.