New Public Administration is an anti-positivist

Antipositivism

Antipositivism is the view in social science that the social realm may not be subject to the same methods of investigation as the natural world; that academics must reject empiricism and the scientific method in the conduct of research...

, anti-technical, and anti-hierarchical reaction against traditional public administration.

History

New Public Administration traces it origins to the first Minnowbrook Conference held in 1968 under the patronage of Dwight Waldo

Dwight Waldo

Dwight Waldo was an American political scientist and is perhaps the defining figure in modern public administration. Waldo's career was often directed against a scientific/technical portrayal of bureaucracy and government that now suggests the term public management as opposed to public...

. The 1960s in the USA was a time of unusual social and political turbulence and upheaval. In this context, Waldo concluded that neither the study nor the practice of public administration was responding suitably to the escalating turmoil and the complications that arose from those conditions.

Themes

1. Relevance: Traditional public administration has too little interest in contemporary problems and issues. Social realities must be taken into consideration.
2. Values: Value-neutrality in public administration is an impossibility. The values being served through administrative action must be transparent.
3. Social Equity: Realization of social equity should be a chief goal of public administration.
4. Change: Skepticism toward the deeply-rooted powers invested in permanent institutions and the status quo.
5. Client Focus: Positive, proactive, and responsive administrators rather than inaccessible and authoritarian "ivory tower
   Ivory Tower
   The term Ivory Tower originates in the Biblical Song of Solomon , and was later used as an epithet for Mary.From the 19th century it has been used to designate a world or atmosphere where intellectuals engage in pursuits that are disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life...
   
   " bureaucrats.

Criticism

Though New Public Administration brought public administration closer to political science, it was criticized as anti-theoretic and anti-management. Robert T. Golembiewski describes it as radicalism in words and status quo in skills and technologies. Further, it must be counted as only a cruel reminder of the gap in the field between aspiration and performance. Golembiewski considers it as a temporary and transitional phenomena.

Significance

Felix and Lloyd Nigro observe that New Public Administration has seriously jolted the traditional concepts and outlook of the discipline and enriched the subject by imparting a wider perspective by linking it closely to the society.