Why do some party leaders in Flemish municipal councils get more acquainted with New Public Management principles than others ? An investigation into the impact of their individual characteristics

B. Buylen () and Johan Christiaens

Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium from Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Abstract: This paper contributes to the scarce literature on politicians’ individual characteristics as determinants of their acquaintanceship with New Public Management (NPM) concepts and tools. It focuses on party leaders as the leaders of the political groups consisting of members of the same party in the municipal council. Our sample covers 363 party leaders in Flemish municipalities. Using survey data, we combine individual factors in a regression analysis to reveal which personal characteristics mediate their processes of getting acquainted with NPM principles. Party leaders’ acquaintanceship with 5 concrete NPM concepts is used as a dependent variable. The results reveal that political experience, being majority leader, combination of political mandates at a higher political level and financial expertise have a positive effect on acquaintanceship with NPM. Economic education, gender, profession, age or size have no significant effect.

Keywords: local government reform; NPM; party leaders (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2012-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rug:rugwps:12/821

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