Post-NPM Reforms or Administrative Hybridization in French Health Care?

France adopted its own version of New Public Management (NPM), embracing some of its elements (quasi-markets) and rejecting others (French administrative reforms pursued a re-centralization agenda rather than NPM-endorsed disaggregation). Clear trends emerge such as the added complexity of the public management exercise. Outcomes were below expectations in core areas including accountability, physician and citizen participation. Moreover, NPM revived bureaucratic inadequacies. The paper subsequently examines health care reforms. Rather than pointing to a post-NPM paradigm, these indicate convergence toward a hybrid system.