Local government innovation in Ibero-American countries. New public management inspires possibilities

This article reviews three different case studies with the aim to demonstrate that local governments in Latin America have been developing interesting innovation programs based on a new public management (NPM) model. To this end, it provides a description of the characteristics of innovation, the features of local government management, and the fundamentals of the NPM model. The results reveal that there are extensive possibilities for designing better programs and public services and, at the same time, confirm that the NPM model is a valuable framework that can be used for dealing with this challenge. Lastly, it provides a recommendation to view these kinds of management tools as instruments to make progress with the important project of placing citizens at the center of governmental actions.