Oltre il tagliaspese: ripensare . !Beyond Cutback-Management:

Think again . !

Allievi SSPA

Roma, 10 Maggio 2005

Harald Plamper

harald.plamper@t-online.de

Farfalla? No! (solo nel contesto tedesco)

Jet? No!

Satellite? Si!

Harald Plamper 2005 3

Agenda

• Starting Point: Cutback-Management in 70s and 80s

• New Public Management and Governance in 80s and 90s (and later)

• Reforms in Budgeting and Accounting• Cutback-Management again: old or new?• Accountability in Germany• Food for Thought

Harald Plamper 2005 4

Starting Point: Cutback-Management in 70s and 80s

• Two Books in my private library:– Dunsire & Hood. Cutback Management in Public

Bureaucracies, Cambridge 1989

– Poul Erik Mouritzen (ed.). Managing Cities in Austerity – Urban Fiscal Stress in Ten Western Countries, London 1992

• NL in 1982: 20 % Reduction in Municipal Income• My Job as City Manager in Nürnberg: Cutback,

Cutback, Cutback!

Harald Plamper 2005 5

Starting Point: Cutback-Management in 70s and 80s

Results:• Limited Success• Politicians Unhappy: "Pacifier- (Ciuccio-) Theory"• Citizens want no Additional Taxes or Fees, but all the

Services (user fees one small instrument for more income)

• Some Detrimental Side-Effects• More Bureaucratic Centralisation (top-down) because

of fight against "professional-bureaucratic complex"*

*Samuel H. Beer, Harvard

Harald Plamper 2005 6

Starting Point: Cutback-Management in 70s and 80s

Cutback Management Behaviour Changes, but "a Cutback is a Cutback" (Dunsire, Hood p186)

Better Ways to Achieve the Desired Result (Balance the Budget)?

Harald Plamper 2005 7

New Public Management and Governance in 80s and 90s

• NPM one (not the only) Answer to Fiscal Stress– Goal: Keep Services Intact, while Cutting the Budget– Focus: one's own Organisation– Budgeting Procedures and Accounting Principles

Important– Controlling new Instrument

• Consequent Implementation?• Sustainable Change (Managerial Thinking)?• Enough? NO!

Harald Plamper 2005 8

New Public Management and Governance in 80s and 90s

Governance– Many Diverse Private Actors Companies,

Clubs, Unions, NPOs, NGOs, Individuals – Many Public Actors Decentralisation,

Federalisation– Consequence: Networks and Networking

Harald Plamper 2005 9

New Public Management and Governance in 80s and 90s

From NPM to Governance? (NPM dead-end street (vicolo cieco)? No!

Governance and Management!

Harald Plamper 2005 10

Cutback Management Again: Old or New?

• Again? Yes!– Old Homework not Completed (still "Cuckoos -

cuculi" in Budget-Nests)– Sluggish Economy– Maastricht!– Blind Eye on Challenges: Demography,

Environment, International Security

Harald Plamper 2005 11

Cutback Management Again: Old or New?

• Old or New?– Central Governments tend to return to Old Ways:

• Hide Deficits• Change Maastricht-Criteria• Sell Assets• Take the Dynamics out of Programmes (eg. Ceilings – tetti)• Use "Lawn-Mower" (Responsibility of Ministers of Finance) Conflicts with Opposition (acceptable) Conflicts between different Levels of Government Conflicts between different Policy Sectors ("Professional-

Bureaucratic Complex)

Harald Plamper 2005 12

Cutback Management Again: Old or New?

• Old or New?– Municipalities tend to try New Ways (Consequence of

Management plus Governance Reforms)• Further Rationalisation, more Flexibilty• Consultation (Citizens as Co-Planners)• Participatory Budgets (eg. City of Vlotho, D)• Social Capital (Citizens as Co-Producers)• Cooperation, Collaboration, Merger

– Many experiments with often Positive Results– Role of Politicians is Changing ("Pacifier"-Theory

Obsolete?)

Harald Plamper 2005 13

Cutback Management Again: Old or New?

Overwhelming Problem not Solved:

Take Dynamism out of all Government Programs!!!!

Harald Plamper 2005 14

Reforms in Budgeting and Accounting

• Consequence of Management and Governance Reforms

• Output Budgets (also Outcome Budgets?)

• "True" (Realistic) Budgets

• Accrual Accounting instead of Cash Accounting (Future Obligations/Risks in today's Euros)

Harald Plamper 2005 15

Accountability in Germany

(Personal Responsibility or) Institutional Accountability• Old: Conformance (adherence to law + parsimony)• New: Conformance plus Performance

• Goals from Political Programmes (Outcomes) Strategy• Accountability in Networks?• Accountability with Citizens as Co-Planners and Co-Producers?• Input- and Output-Budgets (Municipalities)• Benchmarking with Performance-Indicators and Measurement

(Municipalities)• Evaluation of Programmes (all Levels of Government)• Accounting and Consulting (Example: new Gemeindeprüfungsanstalt

Nordrhein-Westfalen)

Harald Plamper 2005 16

Accountability in Germany

Necessary Changes:

• Take Accountability seriously

• Conformane plus performance

• No Symbolic Accountability

Harald Plamper 2005 17

Food for Thought

• What can replace "Pacifier"-Theory? New Win-Win Relationships between Citizens, Politicians and Public Managers? How?

• Accountability in Network-Environment How?

• Governance - Management - Finance more Options (Look at Links!)

• Conformance or Performance? Better: Conformance and Performance! How?

Harald Plamper 2005 18

Food for Thought

To "cheer you up":

Lassen wir uns von unserer Berufspflicht überwältigen.

Let us be overwhelmed by our professional duty.

German Writer Anna Seghers 1935 in exile