Since the 1970s, the further rise of civil society forces, the increasing influence of new technological revolution on social structure and macro-governance, and the changes in international development pattern have posed severe challenges to the policies and practices pursued by western developed countries since World War II, such as government's active intervention in economy, strengthening control and welfare state. Western countries such as Britain and the United States are caught in the predicament of economic stagflation, huge fiscal deficit and public alienation from the government, so a new public management movement with enterprise management, privatization, deregulation, public sector restructuring and mechanism redesign as its main contents is gradually launched, which finally seems to become a "public sector fashion" sweeping the world.

Although the new public management has different forms of expression and specific practices in different countries, and the intensity of change is also different, they basically contain three levels of content:

The first level is generally related to the new public administration in the 1950s and 1960s, that is, to re-examine and evaluate the original system, mechanism and practices, sum up experience, find problems, and pay attention to solving key situational problems.

The second level focuses on explaining and solving the existing problems of public administration from the technical level, trying to introduce new technical methods and means into decision-making, planning, implementation, supervision, assessment and evaluation by absorbing new knowledge and new achievements of economics, management and administration, so as to improve the ability and performance of public administration departments to adapt to changes in the new era.

The third level is the logical result of the contents of the first two levels. It is a redesign of the structure and system of the public sector on the basis of re-examining the relationship between the government and the market and between the government and society. On the one hand, it improves the internal efficiency and scientific management level of the public sector, on the other hand, it improves the public sector's ability to respond to society and bridges the distance with society.

Different guiding theories (ideas) lead to different forms of new public management.

More important theories include:

(1) institutional change theory;

(2) public * * * selection theory;

(3) transaction cost theory;

(4) Principal-agent theory;

(5) New managerialism.