ABSTRACT
Like non-identical twins separated at birth, co-production and public management have been connected with but distanced from each other since the 1970s. This chapter considers co-production and public management and the relationship between them. It shows how New Public Management (NPM) or managerialism is largely derived from and similar to corporate management. The essence of public management involves focusing on results rather than processes, giving managers the autonomy, means and incentives to achieve those results. Performance measurement is a central feature of public management. It informs the articulation of objectives, the assignment of responsibilities and the allocation of rewards. Both co-production and public management could be enhanced if the internal and external producers could together engage in deliberation about the design, delivery and evaluation of services. Some of their artefacts sit awkwardly together; these mainly relate to the orientation of public management towards precision, incentives and delineating responsibilities.
