Purpose. The purpose of our article is to compare how two different countries, with various administrative and management backgrounds, are doing on the reform processes of their institutions according to the main models of public administration. Design/methodology/approach. Two different opinions exist about the New Governance model of public administration: one group of researchers suggests that the new model should supplement New Public Management, while another group (Janet Denhardt, Robert Denhardt1, Arvydas Guogis2) suggests that New Governance is a separate and independent management model opposite to New Public Management. According to this different perspective it is our main goal to identify how reforms are shifting from the New Public Management model to the New Public Service (New Governance) one. That has been done according to a literature revision and two case studies (both in Portugal and Lithuania) based on documental analysis of the reforms instilled. Findings. Our findings suggest that both countries had reformed public administration in recent years according to the New Public Management doctrine. Nevertheless, according to the results of our case studies, it seems that both models of New Public Management and New Governance are supplementary and not the opposite. Originality/value. Our paper gives an accurate vision of the latest processes of reforms implemented in Lithuania and Portugal. These two case studies compare very different profiles of public administration accordingly to the main models of administration. It also analyses how administrative reforms are shifting from a managerial approach to the New Governance.

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