Public sector reforms in developing countries: A preliminary review

Abstract

Developing countries have adopted or adapted public sector reform interventions based largely on the model of new public management (NPM). Since this model has now been rejected as a global ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ framework, what does post‐new public management hold for developing countries? This paper offers a preliminary review of the literature on public sector reforms in developing countries. It charts scholarship which examined the evolution (including different types of policy interventions), the failure of NPM, and contemporary approaches to reform. The post‐new public management era is ill‐defined, eclectic, and characterised as hybrid and layered where new reforms are superimposed on pre‐existing interventions to deliver ‘good enough’ governance in developing countries.