New Public Administration is an anti-positivist, anti-technical, and anti-hierarchical reaction against traditional public administration.

New Public Administration traces its origins to the first Minnow brook Conference held in 1968 under the patronage of Dwight Waldo. The 1960s in the USA was a time of unusual social and political turbulence and upheaval. In this context, Waldo concluded that neither the study nor the practice of public administration was responding suitably to the escalating turmoil and the complications that arose from those conditions.

Themes

1. Relevance:

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Traditional public administration has too little interest in contemporary problems and issues. Social realities must be taken into consideration.

2. Values:

Value-neutrality in public administration is impossibility. The values being served through administrative action must be transparent.

3. Social Equity:

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Realization of social equity should be a chief goal of public administration.

4. Change:

Skepticism toward the deeply-rooted powers invested in permanent institutions and the status quo.

5. Client Focus:

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Positive, proactive, and responsive administrators rather than inaccessible and authoritarian “ivory tower” bureaucrats.