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A new public administration movement is
emerging to move beyond traditional public
administration and New Public Management.
Th e new movement is a response to the challenges of
a networked, multi-sector, no-one-wholly-in-charge
world and to the shortcomings of previous public
administration approaches. In the new approach
values beyond effi ciency and eff ectiveness—and
especially democratic values—are prominent.
Government has a special role to play as a guarantor
of public values, but citizens as well as businesses
and nonprofi t organizations also are important as
active public problem solvers. Th e article highlights
value-related issues in the new approach and presents
an agenda for research and action to be pursued if the
new approach is to fulfi ll its promise.
Creating public value is a hot topic for both public
administration practitioners and scholars (Shearer
and Williams 2011; Van der Wal, Nabatachi, and
de Graaf 2013). Why is that? What is going on? We
believe the answer lies with the continuing evolution
of public administration thinking and practice. Just
as New Public Management supplanted traditional
public administration in the 1980s and 1990s as the
dominant view, a new movement is underway that is
likely to eclipse it. Th e new approach does not have
a consensually agreed name, but many authors point
to the need for a new approach and to aspects of its
emergence in practice and theory (e.g., Moore, 1995,
2013, 2014a; Boyte 2005; Stoker 2006; Bozeman
2007; Kettl 2008; Alford and Hughes, 2008; Osborne
2010; Talbot 2010; Denhardt and Denhardt 2011;
Fisher 2014; Kalambokidis 2014). For example, Janet
and Robert Denhardt’s (2011) excellent and widely
cited book Th e New Public Service captures much of
the collaborative and democratic spirit; content; and
governance focus of the movement.