Public Management Reforms in Germany: New Steering Model and Financial Management Reforms

Abstract

Abstract This chapter describes the most prominent public management reform trajectories in German public administration over the past decades since unification. In the 1990s, the New Steering Model emerged as a German variant of the NPM. Since the mid-2000s, local governments in Germany have been subjected to a mandatory reform of their budgeting and accounting system known as the New Municipal Financial Management reforms. Both reforms have led to a substantial change in terms of internal decentralisation, customer orientation, transparency in resource use and the financial situation of administrative bodies. But the emerging reform patterns and their impacts have not replaced the dominance of a strong legalist culture with hierarchical, centralised control. However, in the course of the reforms, a citizen-customer perspective, more participation of citizens and limited application of new management instruments have been accommodated within the persisting bureaucratic system.

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