Original
The Rise of Midocracy: How NPM and Post‐ NPM Reform Ideas Recombine in Contemporary Public Organizations
Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper introduces and conceptualizes midocracy as an emergent organizational form in the public sector, characterized by the growth and dominance of a professionalized administrative middle layer. The study argues that midocracy draws on elements associated with both New Public Management (NPM) and post‐NPM reform agendas. While administration is essential for coordination, we show how its unchecked expansion can lead to self‐reinforcing dynamics that distance governance from core operations. Midocracy, we contend, reflects a shift from service delivery to symbolic value signaling, strategic abstraction, and polycentric goal‐setting. Our contribution is both conceptual and diagnostic, offering midocracy as a framework for understanding contemporary administrative expansion and its implications for public sector legitimacy and performance. Finally, we relate and critically examine different explanatory accounts of administrative expansion, highlighting how they interact within the dynamics of midocracy.
中文
中层官僚制的兴起：新公共管理与后新公共管理改革理念如何在当代公共组织中重组
摘要
本文引入并概念化“中层官僚制”（midocracy），将其视为公共部门中一种新兴的组织形式，以专业化行政中间层级的增长和主导为特征。研究认为，中层官僚制汲取了与新公共管理（NPM）和后新公共管理改革议程均相关的要素。尽管行政对于协调至关重要，但我们表明，其不受约束的扩张可能导致自我强化动态，使治理与核心业务运作相疏离。我们认为，中层官僚制反映了从服务供给向符号价值传递、战略抽象化和多中心目标设定的转变。我们的贡献兼具概念性和诊断性，将中层官僚制作为一个理解当代行政扩张及其对公共部门合法性与绩效影响的框架。最后，我们关联并批判性审视关于行政扩张的不同解释性论述，强调它们如何在中层官僚制的动态中相互作用。
关键词
中层官僚制、新公共管理、后新公共管理、行政扩张、公共组织、公共部门合法性、绩效、多中心目标设定