-
How does population size influence administrative performance? Evidence from Malta, Samoa, and Suriname Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Marlene Jugl, Wouter Veenendaal, Jack Corbett, Roannie Ng Shiu
Public administration scholars pay increasing attention to the role of context as a pathway to genuinely comparative analysis. Specifically, they focus on the economic, institutional and socio-cultural conditions in which administration takes place. Population size is an overlooked contextual factor despite the fact that existing studies often make implicit, positive assumptions about the effects of
-
Governance modes, mayoral leadership and transitions to public sector co-creation across Europe Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2024-02-13 Britt Regal, Ewan Ferlie, Peter Aagaard, Sanja Vrbek
Increasing interest in ‘co-creation’ raises an intriguing question about the role that political leaders can play. This role may have changed as wider models of public governance have evolved from Traditional Public Administration and New Public Management to more collaborative and networked approaches. With growing recognition that local solutions to complex public policy problems are needed, the
-
The role of values in the interorganizational network response to wicked problems Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2024-02-05 Nick Zonneveld, Jörg Raab, Patrick Kenis, Mirella MN Minkman
Values are seen as important in both interorganizational networks and wicked problems. However, in both academia and practice the exact implications of these values remain unclear. In this article we examine the role of values in interorganizational networks dealing with wicked problems, by conducting a case study in a pregnancy and childbirth network. Our analysis identified both actor and network
-
Why are organisational professionals expanding in the Swedish public sector? The role of accountability Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Linda Alamaa, Patrik Hall, Karl Löfgren
Recent research shows that new types of high-skilled administrators, what we in this article label organisational professionals, have amplified their presence in public sector organisations in relation to other types of public sector employees. Our purpose is to analyse how organisational accountability can be seen as a driver behind the expansion of organisational professionals. Intensified political
-
Deconstructing complexity: A comparative study of government collaboration in national digital platforms and smart city networks in Europe Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2023-04-28 Jessica Breaugh, Maike Rackwitz, Gerhard Hammerschmid, Steven Nõmmik, Benedetta Bello, Jan Boon, Dries Van Doninck, James Downe, Tiina Randma-Liiv
This research deconstructs complexity as a key challenge of intergovernmental digitalisation projects. While much of the literature acknowledges that the fundamental restructuring coupled with tech...
-
The democratic quality of co-creation: A theoretical exploration Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2023-04-20 Christopher Ansell, Eva Sørensen, Jacob Torfing
This article aims to initiate a conversation about the democratic quality of co-creation. There is growing interest in co-creation as a tool for mobilizing societal resources, enhancing creative pr...
-
How service users envision their engagement in processes of collaborative innovation: A Q-methodological study on user involvement in eHealth collaborations Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2023-04-18 Chesney Callens, Koen Verhoest, Erik Hans Klijn, Steven Nõmmik, Vicente Pina, Lena Brogaard
Involving users in innovating public services is an increasingly common, but challenging practice, as users often have different viewpoints on their own role in the process. Particularly in complex...
-
Systematic and axiological capacities in artificial intelligence applied in the public sector Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2023-04-18 Edgar A. Ruvalcaba-Gomez
Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a technological development is being implemented in the public sector with the intention of improving service delivery, as well as to help solve complex problems. Ho...
-
Co-created public value: The strategic management of collaborative problem-solving Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2023-03-14 Martin Kitchener, Rachel Ashworth, Dave Horton, Eva Elliott
This paper presents the first analysis of the way that co-creation can be used as the primary approach to problem-solving within organisations that operate a public value model of strategic managem...
-
Economics, ideas or institutions? Agencification through government-owned enterprises in illiberal contexts: The case of Hungary Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2023-03-12 György Hajnal, Aron Hajnal
Corporate state agencies (CSAs) are government/state-owned enterprises (GOEs) that perform public tasks. The main objective of this article is to better understand the drivers of governments’ chang...
-
Religion, spirituality, faith and public administration: A literature review and outlook Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2023-01-09 Edoardo Ongaro, Michele Tantardini
This article originates from the consideration that religion, spirituality and faith affect public administration, its configuration and its workings. Religion, spirituality, and faith are importan...
-
Coercive and mimetic isomorphic mechanisms for service provision: The creation of nonprofit organizations in Mexico before and during the COVID-19 pandemic Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-12-07 Tania L Hernandez Ortiz, Susan Appe
Nonprofit organizations represent diverse efforts of collective action and service provision, and have for some time been collaborators to public governance systems in developed and developing econ...
-
The visualization of public information: Describing the use of narrative infographics by U.S. municipal governments Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-12-01 Stephanie Dailey, Briana Gilmore, Nandhini Rangarajan
Narrative infographics present information in a visual, easy-to-understand format and are organized such that the information conveys a story. Public administrators are increasingly using narrative...
-
‘This is just a little flu’: analysing medical populist discourses on the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-11-30 Erik Persson, Ewan Ferlie, Juan Baeza
This paper explores the concept of medical populism to examine how Brazil has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. Recognising the centrality of discourses in framing health policy, we employ Critic...
-
Municipal performance management during the covid pandemic Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-11-22 Obed Pasha, Willow Jacobson
The COVID-19 pandemic brought a major shift in governmental operations, including decision-making processes. In the midst of an unprecedented crisis, public managers had to make rapid decisions wit...
-
Not the usual suspects: creating the conditions for and implementing co-production with marginalised young people in Glasgow Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-11-21 Jane Cullingworth, Richard Brunner, Nicholas Watson
Co-production is now an established part of public service delivery. Despite its popularity, there is only a limited understanding about how co-production works in practice, particularly with margi...
-
Internal and external exploration for public service innovation–Measuring the impact of a climate for creativity and collaborative diversity on innovation Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-10-25 Chesney Callens, Jan Wynen, Jan Boon, Koen Verhoest
Public service innovation involves a process of creative exploration of new ideas, knowledge and perspectives. The article poses that creative exploration emerges from the combination of a climate ...
-
“Most people don’t like a client group that tell you to get fucked”: Choice and control in Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme for formerly incarcerated people Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-10-22 Helen Dickinson, Sophie Yates, Shannon Dodd, Fiona Buick, Caroline Doyle
Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a substantial policy reform aiming to radically transform the design and delivery of disability services. Choice and control are key tenet...
-
Contextualising co-production and complex needs: Understanding the engagement of service users with severe and multiple disadvantages Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-10-21 Kate Broadhurst
Much has been written about co-production in mainstream services but less is known about its applicability to service users with severe and multiple disadvantages (SMD). Given the sometimes-precari...
-
Crisis decision-making inside the core executive: Rationality, bureaucratic politics, standard procedures and the COVID-19 lockdown Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-10-21 Jostein Askim, Tom Christensen
The article explains how the unprecedented pandemic management decision to lock down the country came about, using the case of Norway and drawing on unique interview material from political and adm...
-
The long and winding road towards the EU policy of support to Member States public administration reform: History (2000–2021) and prospects Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-09-30 Edoardo Ongaro
This paper provides an account of how the European Union (EU), and notably the European Commission (EC), has become an actor in its own right in the field of the reform of administration and public...
-
Opening the ‘black box’: Organisational Adaptation and Resistance to institutional isomorphism in a prime-led employment services programme Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-08-17 James Rees, Rebecca Taylor, Chris Damm
The UK’s Work Programme (2012-18) was a major employment services programme, inspired by new public management principles. A relatively small number of directly commissioned ‘prime providers’ were ...
-
How street-level bureaucrats exercise their discretion to encourage clients’ political participation: A case study of Israeli LGBTQ+ teachers Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-06-15 Maayan Davidovitz
Do street-level bureaucrats exercise discretion to encourage clients’ political participation? If so, how, and in what way is it demonstrated? This study examines these questions empirically throug...
-
Public sector accountability styles in Europe comparing accountability and control of agencies in the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the UK Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-06-10 Thomas Schillemans, Sjors Overman, Matthew Flinders, Per Laegreid, Martino Maggetti, Yannis Papadopoulos, Matthew Wood
This paper develops and applies the concept of accountability styles for analyzing and comparing accountability practices in different countries. This is relevant as there is considerable scholarsh...
-
Engaging professionals in the strategic renewal of public services: A literature review and research agenda Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-05-27 Wiljan Hendrikx, Marlot Kuiper, Nicolette van Gestel
Based on an extensive literature review, this article explores the impact of strategic renewal in the public sector on the roles and skills of public professionals. Findings show that successive re...
-
Collegiality and efficiency in bureaucracy Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-05-21 Mats A Bergman, Annika Fredén
This article addresses the relation between the design of regulatory agencies and efficiency, arguing that authority concentrated to a single individual outperforms more collegial decision-making w...
-
Problematizing partner selection: Collaborative choices and decision-making uncertainty Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-04-27 Machiel van der Heijden
Although networked collaboration is often linked to positive outcomes, choosing suitable partners for collaboration can be difficult. Actors often only have limited information about the preference...
-
Strategic planning in turbulent times: Still useful? Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-04-24 Åge Johnsen
A common criticism of strategic planning is that it is of little use when the environment is turbulent and the future is unpredictable. The last decade has witnessed great environmental turbulence ...
-
‘The Minister Wants it’: Self-Politicisation and Proxy Politics among Senior Civil Servants Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-04-13 Erik-Jan van Dorp
In this article, I ask how senior civil servants (SCSs) practice functional politicisation. The literature suggests that they balance responsiveness with astuteness towards ministers, while maintai...
-
Narrative policy framework at the macro level—cultural theory-based beliefs, science-based narrative strategies, and their uptake in the Canadian policy process for genetically modified salmon Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-02-14 Teshanee T Williams, Jennifer Kuzma
This study utilizes the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) and cultural theory to examine the use of policy narratives by coalitions (meso-level) and the institutional uptake (macro-level). We analyz...
-
Happily unaccountable? Perceptions of accountability by public managers Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-01-27 Martino Maggetti, Yannis Papadopoulos
This paper opens up the black box of agencies’ accountability relationships and zooms in on their top managers and the perceptions of accountability thereof. So far, very few studies have examined ...
-
Public administration reform and political will in cases of political instability: Insights from the Israeli experience Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-01-27 Nissim Cohen
How do public administration reforms develop in cases of political instability? Administrative reform has always been on the agenda of governments. Ample literature discusses its necessity and the factors that are associated with both its successes and failures worldwide. Nevertheless, only a few studies discuss the impact of political instability on public administration reform. Focusing on the Israeli
-
Adoption is not enough: Institutionalization of e-participation initiatives Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-01-26 Tiina Randma-Liiv
This study investigates the institutionalization of e-participation initiatives in six European countries—Estonia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, and Spain—using a multiple case study. The following research questions are addressed: How have recently established e-participation initiatives been institutionalized in public administrations? What are the formal and informal aspects of their
-
In trust we trust: The impact of trust in government on excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2022-01-02 Bishoy Louis Zaki, Francesco Nicoli, Ellen Wayenberg, Bram Verschuere
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forward myriad challenges to public policy, central of which is understanding the different contextual factors that can influence the effectiveness of policy responses across different systems. In this article, we explore how trust in government can influence the ability of COVID-19 policy responses to curb excess mortality during the pandemic. Our findings indicate
-
Comparing policy conflict on electricity transmission line sitings Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2021-08-06 Jongeun You, Jill Yordy, Christopher M Weible, Kyudong Park, Tanya Heikkila, Duncan Gilchrist
Maintaining the quality and reliability of electricity transmission lines is central to effective energy governance. However, transmission line siting is often a contentious policy decision since permitting and constructing lines may involve private and public property, residents and communities, and localized and national concerns. Yet, policy conflict in transmission siting across cases and over
-
Examining the “in-between” of public encounters: Evidence from two seemingly disparate policy contexts Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2021-07-02 Aritree Samanta, Laura Hand
Face-to-face encounters, where public administrators and citizens interact, are one of the primary ways the public experiences the state. Recognized as crucial to the relationship between citizens and government for decades, scholarship on public encounters has developed around understanding the legal, organizational, and individual factors that affect the decision making of street-level bureaucrats
-
Politicians’ involvement in street-level policy implementation: Implications for social equity Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2021-06-23 Maayan Davidovitz, Nissim Cohen
The study explores whether elected officials’ involvement in the way street-level bureaucrats implement policy affects social equity. This question is addressed empirically through interviews and focus groups with 84 Israeli educators and social workers. Findings indicate that elected officials involve themselves directly and indirectly in street-level bureaucrats’ policy implementation and their involvement
-
Blame avoidance, scapegoats and spin: Why Dutch politicians won’t evaluate ZBO-outcomes Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2021-06-18 Sandra van Thiel
Despite high expectations about the results of agencification and a legal obligation to evaluate executive agencies, ministers and MPs seem not very interested in evaluating agencies’ results. Hood’s theory on blame avoidance is used to explain the lack of evaluation in the case of the Dutch ZBOs. Only one in seven ZBOs is evaluated as frequently as mandated. Findings show that ZBO evaluations are
-
Implementing digitalization in the public sector. Technologies, agency, and governance Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2021-06-17 Marco Di Giulio, Giancarlo Vecchi
Technological transformations are currently reshaping the structure and strategies of public administrations and are expected to foster efficiency and policy integration. However, the literature on digital government has demonstrated that the introduction of technology is far from a smooth process, as it is often associated with conflict and negative feedback. This paper departs from James Thompson’s
-
Dynamics of agency governance: Evidence from the Nuclear safety sector Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2021-06-14 Kjerstin Kjøndal, Jarle Trondal
Public organizations are compound bodies characterized by competing endogenous dynamics of governance. This study makes two main contributions. First, it contributes to an organizational approach to studies of public policy and administration by conceptualizing compound agency governance. Second, by determining how variation in agency governance reflects endogenous organizational factors. Based on
-
Electoral administration and the problem of poll worker recruitment: Who volunteers, and why? Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2021-06-06 Alistair Clark, Toby S James
Elections depend on the thousands of people who give up their time to administer this crucial public service. They staff polling stations and ensure votes are issued, cast and counted. Poll workers are effectively ‘stipended volunteers’, receiving some limited financial compensation, but working for the broader public good. It is important to understand why people choose to give up their time to provide
-
Erased: Ending faculty sexual misconduct in academia an open letter from women of public affairs education Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2021-06-03 Sarah Young,Kimberly Wiley
The #MeToo movement is descending upon the walls of the ivory tower. The day of reckoning has come for academia to end teaching staff1 sexual misconduct. As women of public2 and third sector3 educa...
-
Hybrid stimulations and perversions in public service innovation Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2021-05-26 Mette Sønderskov, Rolf Rønning, Siv Magnussen
Innovation has been highlighted as a magic formula that can solve deep-seated, emerging complex social and economic problems in the public service sector. However, public innovation efforts face both drivers and barriers. Innovation depends on context, and currently different competing governance paradigms’ influence has attracted growing academic and political interest regarding the potential of public
-
Leading for public value in multi-agency collaboration Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2021-03-21 Steven Parker, Jean Hartley, Jim Beashel, Quoc Vo
This paper examines the relationship between leadership and public value in a multi-agency service, requiring the delicate navigation of tensions when there are diverse and competing interests among public service collaborators. The paper adopts an actor-focused perspective arguing for the need to develop theory about leadership in collaborative settings which includes understanding political astuteness
-
When politicians do not care for the policy: Street-level compliance in cross-agency contexts Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2021-02-27 Céline Mavrot, Susanne Hadorn
The non-implementation of political decisions is a major challenge of contemporary political life. Policy analysis has devoted careful attention to implementation gaps resulting from administrative non-compliance with political orders. However, the fact that political authorities actually want to enforce all policies should not be taken for granted. This article proposes a conceptual model that systematically
-
Local public corporate responsibility: A scale development and validation Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2021-01-10 MaríaDolores Abellan-Gimenez, JoaquinLonginos Marín-Rives, Juandiego Paredes-Gazquez
The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a long tradition in business, but it is relatively new in public administration. Recently, there has been general consensus that there is a need to promote CSR in public administrations so as to improve transparency, governance, and the efficient allocation of public resources. We develop a new scale for measuring local public corporate responsibility
-
Theorizing the behavioral state: Resolving the theory-practice paradox of policy sciences Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-12-28 Ching Leong, Michael Howlett
Traditionally, the policy sciences exhibited a paradoxical relationship to public behavior: arguing in theory that it was rational in a utilitarian sense and could be modelled as such while at the same time recognizing its irrational nature in practice without attempting to reconcile this contradiction. A recent behavioral turn among policy scholars has broken the discursive hegemony of traditional
-
What’s in it for me? How blame and credit expectations affect support for innovation Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-12-25 Krista Timeus, Jessica Breaugh
The article applies an experimental vignette research design to test how blame and credit expectations affect individuals’ willingness to support innovative programs. Respondents received a survey with three scenarios of innovative programs and were randomly allocated to being blamed if the program failed, credited if it succeeded, or a control group. Blame and credit framing had no statistically significant
-
The impact of publicness on the performance of professional services: Do private sector organizations perform better? Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-12-25 Salvador Parrado, Anne-Marie Reynaers, José Rama
This research assesses the impact of the degree of publicness on hospital performance in a specific ’mixed market’ of public health. This market is characterized by patient choice, capitation financing for private hospitals, and funding through ‘soft’ budgets (public authorities partially cover deficits or appropriate profits) for public hospitals. Previous studies on ownership (economic theory), market
-
Accountability through mutual attunement: How can parliamentary hearings connect the elected and the unelected? Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-12-15 Andreas Eriksen, Alexander Katsaitis
The increased authority delegated to independent agencies raises questions about the conditions of politically accountable governance, and specifically parliament’s role as a representative institu...
-
Legislating Islamophobia: The factors for the existence of anti-sharia laws in the United States Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-12-08 Daniel Hummel
In 2010 a number of states began introducing a law that prohibited the application of sharia in U.S. courtrooms. Sharia, translated as the ‘clear path’, is essentially the law of Islam. These laws ...
-
Developing collaboration between research-oriented and practice-oriented experts in public administration: How does expert participation make a difference in public policy making and governance practice? Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-09-29 Lihua Yang
The contradiction between experts’ research (or theory) and practitioners’ practice has plagued public administration for over a century. However, this study emphasizes that experts themselves are ...
-
Analyzing open government policy adoption through the multiple streams framework: The roles of policy entrepreneurs in the case of Madrid Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-08-09 Edgar A Ruvalcaba-Gomez, J Ignacio Criado, J Ramon Gil-Garcia
Open government is expected to promote important changes related to transparency, participation, and collaboration in the public sector. This article analyzes the open government policy-making proc...
-
Publishing in a time of COVID-19: A message to our readers, authors, reviewers and production team Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-08-01 Keith Baker, Claire A Dunlop, Edoardo Ongaro
As editors of Public Policy and Administration (PPA), we know the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all our lives in myriad ways. For some colleagues, research continues undimmed. Yet, we appreciate that many of our authors may need more time for submissions and revisions. Should you need extra time please do not hesitate to contact the editors and we can make arrangements with you and update our online
-
Researching COVID-19: A research agenda for public policy and administration scholars Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-08-01 Claire A Dunlop, Edoardo Ongaro, Keith Baker
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is one of the defining policy challenges of an era. In this article, we sketch some possible ways in which the public policy and administration community can make an enduring contribution about how to cope with this terrible crisis. We do so by offering some elements that delineate a tentative research agenda for public policy and administration scholars, to be pursued with epistemic
-
From employment optional to “Employment First”: Explaining two cases of state-level disability policy change Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-07-26 Leanne S Giordono
Over the last three decades, the United States has increasingly devolved social policy decisions from the federal to the state level. These changes have resulted in substantial variation in policy ...
-
Market regulation between economic and ecological values: Regulatory authorities and dilemmas of responsiveness Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-07-23 Tobias Besselink, Kutsal Yesilkagit
The regulation of markets emerged as one of the core pillars of government policies during the 1990s. However, the ascendance of ecological values and issues, such as sustainability and security in...
-
Thanks to reviewers of 2019/2020 Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-07-08
Public Policy and Administration aims to publish excellent research from all fields of public policy, management and administration. Achieving this goal depends to a considerable extent on the reviewers who give valuable constructive criticism to the authors. The input and dedication of all our reviewers are highly appreciated by the authors and editors. The COVID-19 global pandemic has made 2020 a
-
The governance capacities of Brexit from a Scottish perspective: The case of fisheries policy Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-07-01 John Connolly, Arno van der Zwet, Christopher Huggins, Craig McAngus
Brexit leads to uncertainties about how policies will be ‘rescaled’ from the European Union back to the United Kingdom and its devolved governments. Interviews with key Scottish Government official...
-
The politics of senior bureaucratic turnover in the Westminster tradition: Trust and the choice between internal and external appointments Public Policy and Administration (IF 2.909) Pub Date : 2020-06-19 Christopher A Cooper, Patrik Marier, Ali Halawi
The extent to which new governments appoint and dismiss senior public servants is widely claimed to be influenced by their country’s underlying administrative tradition. This is particularly the ca...