Exploring managerialism in victorian local government

The terms 'new public management' (NPM) and 'managerialism' are much used in the public management literature, though generally with little precision. Broadly, these terms refer to the adoption of a private sector management model emphasising the accountability of managers and a results orientation. The specific features of the model vary with the author, though in some versions NPM comes very close to a 'new right' project of a minimalist state with the public service confined to policy provision. Whether this model is applicable to local government and in what manner has received little attention in the literature. Accordingly, this paper reviews the principal tenets of NPM and considers their applicability to local government. En doing this we focus on Victoria, where the Liberal-National state government (1992-1999) pursued a radical reform agenda at both state and local government levels. In particular we argue that there are two models of managerialism, liberation and market-driven, and that the process of local government reform was conducted using the rhetoric of liberation whereas the reality was closer to market-driven managerialism. The principal implication of this argument is that the freedom of managers to form and implement strategy was more illusory than real.