After managerialism: MacIntyre's lessons for public administration.

Disappointing results and negative consequences of government reforms inspired by New Public Management (NPM) ideas have recently stimulated Public Administration scholars to develop alternative approaches to governance. Prominent alternatives in current debates are the Neo-Weberian State, Public Value Management, new arrangements of civic participation, and evidence-based policy making. In this article, the authors build on a reconstruction of the ideas of Alasdair MacIntyre to argue that these alternatives are likely to become as disappointing after their implementation as NPM, as they share its basic modernist and managerialist flaws. They believe MacIntyre's lessons for Public Administration point toward a more promising route. © 2011 SAGE Publications.