RC32 - Public Policy and Administration

We have had a call for papers for a symposium on experimental public administration in Public Administration Review.

Cambridge Studies in Comparative Public Policy is a new series established by Cambridge University Press to promote and disseminate comparative research in public policy. Edited by M. Ramesh, Wu Xun and Michael Howlett, the series welcomes proposals for new books from established scholars and first-time authors alike.

Darryl Jarvis writes to introduce the series Studies in the Political Economy of Public Policy and hopes that public policy researchers might consider the series when placing their next manuscript.

Maria Gusravson

Auditing Good Government in Africa: Public Sector Reform, Professional Norms and the Development Discourse (Executive Politics and Governance) Hardcover

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61HkLm9vpXL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

Call for Papers − Central European Journal of Public Policy Special Issue on Knowledge in Policy: New Perspectives, New Conflicts

Guest editors: Katarína Staroňová (Comenius University) and Michal Sedlačko (University of Applied Sciences, FH Campus Wien)

Over the last two decades a number of policy scholars, international organisations as well as national governments (particularly in OECD countries) increasingly call for a more systematic use of “evidence” in public policy making. Evidence can, in this respect, be defined as explicit and systematic knowledge that corresponds to scientific criteria of quality – and appears also under names of “(scientific) expertise”, “facts” and others. Increased use of evidence has implications in terms of changes in the structure of policy making processes, the measure of influence that various actors can exert on these processes, skills of administrative staff and division of labour in public organisations, as well as technologies and organisational procedures introduced in public organisations to enable “management” of knowledge. At the same time, the trend towards more systematic use of evidence in policy practice redefines the legitimacy criteria for public policy and opens up new conflict arenas centred on knowledge production and use (see, for example, the recent public discussions around the IPCC reports or the debates on democratisation of science).

Public policy studies have been bound by the Westphalian concept of sovereignty. Yet, increasingly at the transnational level there have been a proliferation of administrative practices and processes of policy-making and policy delivery beyond but often overlapping with traditional nation-state policy processes. New formal and informal institutions at the international level (i.e. transnational public administration) are behind these policy processes often in cooperation with national public administrations but sometimes quite independently from them.

Examples include practices such as the OECD’s standard setting and 'best practice' to the World Bank's 'global programs. There are many other 'multi-stakeholder initiatives', 'global public-private partnerships' and 'Global Commissions'. While policy norms and agendas may have global resonance, nevertheless the pattern of policy action can vary considerably. Implementation may occur at national or local levels in different countries more or less contemporaneously, or also in problem contexts that are cross-border and co-jurisdictional, hence our use of the term ‘transnational administration’.

These developments represent a challenge to traditional policy and public administration studies which have tended to undertake analysis of the capacity of public sector hierarchies to globalise national policies rather than to ask if there is transnational policy-making above and beyond the state. There is little conceptualisation of global public policy – policy that is either co-authored by states, in coalition with other actors such as in ‘global public private partnerships’ or ‘private’ global policy and of transnational public administration. This special edition calls for papers that interrogate the idea of ‘global policy processes’ and the emergence of various modalities of ‘transnational administration’.

Guest Editors: Professor Diane Stone, Murdoch University (and University of Warwick). Email: d.stone@murdoch.edu.au

Dr Stella Ladi, Queen Mary, University of London. Email: s.ladi@qmul.ac.uk

We look forward to receiving submissions of papers via he Public Administration Manuscript Central pages by 1st June 2014.

The Interpretive Methodologies and Methods Conference Group of the APSA seeks nominations for the Charles Taylor Book Award for the best book in political science that employs or develops interpretive methodologies and methods.

The Crawford School of Public Policy has launched the first issue of its new on-line journal 'Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies.'

Further information from the journal website:

Policy analysis in Germany Edited by Sonja Blum, Austrian Institute for Family Studies, University of Vienna, Austria and Klaus Schubert, Institute of Political Science, Münster University, Germany. This comprehensive study, part of the International Library of Policy Analysis, brings together for the first time a systemic overview of policy analysis activities in Germany. Written by leading experts in the field, including informed practitioners, it outlines the development of the discipline, identifies its role in academic education and research, and examines its styles and methods. The book also focuses on the role of policy analysis for governments and parliaments, for parties, social partners, and interest groups. By offering a rich and timely analysis of policy analysis in Germany, this book is a valuable resource for academic exchange and for teaching, particularly in the fields of political science, social sciences, economics and geography. Moreover, by its broad, comprehensive understanding of ‘policy analysis’, the book will be of practical relevance and shape the debate for the future development of policy analysis in Germany and the different spheres where it is practised. Sonja Blum is a political scientist and Senior Researcher at the University of Vienna, Austria. Her academic interests are policy analysis, comparative welfare state research, family policy, and the role of evidence and learning in policy-making. Klaus Schubert holds the chair on German Politics and Policy Analysis at the Institute for Political Science of the University of Münster, Germany. His major fields of research and publication are comparative policy analysis, especially social and welfare policies, as well as politics and economics. HB £90.00 978-1-4473-0625-2 July 2013 EPDF £90.00 978-1-4473-0626-9  International Library of Policy Analysis This major new series brings together for the first time a detailed examination of the theory and practice of policy analysis systems at different levels of government and by non-governmental actors in a specific country. It therefore provides a key addition to research and teaching in comparative policy analysis and policy studies more generally. For more information visit www.policypress.co.uk/series_ilpa 

Engaging with Carol Bacchi: Strategic interventions and exchanges, a new book edited by Angelique Bletsas and Chris Beasley.

The book illuminates and elaborates on Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ (WPR) approach to policy analysis. It includes new contributions from Bacchi, and Beasley and Bacchi, and exchanges with scholars who have drawn upon her work.