ABSTRACT
NPM has become a standard international model for public administration reform. The term NPM originally came from New Zealand, describing the reforms initiated there in the 1980s. Nowadays, NPM is used as a generic term for the movement of similar public management reforms spreading around the world. The distinct feature of all those reforms is the shift from input to output orientation (Schedler and Proeller 2000: 5). NPM reforms started out in AngloSaxon countries, like the UK, USA or New Zealand. In the meantime the name as well as the basic ideas of NPM are in discussion in most Western industrialized nations. Also, in continental Europe many municipalities claim to have launched NPM reforms.
