Why are some Flemish municipal party group leaders more familiar with NPM principles than others? Assessing the influence of individual factors.

Abstract

This study addresses the controversy in the literature regarding the effects of individual factors on party group leaders’ familiarity with a selection of New Public Management concepts. In doing so, it contributes to the scarce literature regarding this group of non-executive politicians. Furthermore, this study has an innovative methodological approach, introducing an NPM “familiarity coefficient” in order to make a quantitative assessment. Data was gathered from a survey of 363 party group leaders in Flemish municipalities and the results reveal moderate familiarity. Factors that had a positive effect on the NPM familiarity coefficient were being a majority leader, dual mandate holding and financial as well as political expertise.