Executive Dominance and the New Public Service

01/06/2021

Over the past several years, I have been playing with the idea that we have a hopelessly distorted public sector governance system.

My current hypothesis is that it’s distorted because most of the power is held by ministers and senior officials and is often exercised in the dark, in the hidden corners of Government, where the conventions rule.

My posts in early 2020 on the ‘quirks’ in our public management system illustrate just how dominant the shaping power of ministers is.

Senior officials are incredibly responsive to ministers who can articulate a set of priorities and have a clear governance theory to deliver on those priorities. Said differently, the public service is designed to meet the short-term political goals of the authorising environment.

Relatedly, public sector agencies are responsive when senior officials exercise strong internal leadership and can attract talented people who are inspired to dedicate themselves to working with integrity.

While this combination is the envy of the world because it is the same combination that enabled our successful COVID19 response, it is, in my view, a relationship invisible to most of us and therefore unaccountable to many.

It is also a relationship that has undergone significant change over the past 40 years. For instance, it has moved from a symbiotic interdependent partnership to a command and control contract post the 1980s reforms. It is also a relationship deeply impacted by the rise of the political chiefs of staff, political advisers in each ministerial Office, the centralising of all responses to the media, and our Parliament’s failure to come to grips with outcomes reporting.

To help me understand the relationship between ministers and senior officials, I have been trying to map the various public sector reforms in Aotearoa to understand where we have been and where we are going. My current map is attached. Please feel free to download it and use it.

My current hypothesis is that we have been slowly moving away from a principle-agent relationship between Ministers and senior officials toward a partnership on behalf of the public interest. We are slowly moving our public management system from one based on neo-liberal economics to one based on our shared endeavour, decentered governance and mutual reciprocity.

Maybe, we are on the brink of another significant shift, from rangatiratanga to old public service to new public management to new public governance to new public service.

Time will tell.

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