Public Management and Co-Production

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. Until the turn of the century, co-production had not prospered as well as public management, and like those twins, their fates have also followed different paths, as the relationship between them has gone through stages. At first co-production was seen (and often misinterpreted) by government reformers as similar to or part of the idea of public participation in decision-making-both seen as interesting ideas but with slightly naïve advocates. Meanwhile, public management had become the dominant construct in the public sector, spreading acros..