The GOVERNANCE blog

Professor Matt Andrews of  Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, a member of the Governance editorial board, has just published a new book, The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development (Cambridge University Press.)  The book “explains why many institutional reforms in developing countries have limited success and suggest ways to overcome these limits.”  Pre-order on Amazon.

All individual subscribers to Governance can have their new books profiled in this newsletter.  Subscribe to Governance.

Twenty academics contribute to Explorations in Governance, a new volume produced to honor the work of Christopher Hood, the Gladstone Professor of Government at University of Oxford.  The volume was prepared for a festschrift held at the Institute for Government in London on March 16.  The edited collection can be downloaded at no charge from the University of Oxford.

Governance board member Per Laegreid is co-editor, with Koen Verhoest, Sandra Van Thiel, and Geert Bouckaert of the new book Government Agencies: Practices and Lessons from Thirty Countries (Palgrave 2012).  More information about the book.  Allen Schick says that the book allows reformers to “innovate with eyes wide open, and with greater comprehension of the difference agencies make in managing public services.”

SOG member Niamh Hardiman of University College Dubin is editor of the new book Irish Governance in Crisis, published by Manchester University Press.  Desmond King of the University of Oxford says that the book “provides an outstanding analysis of the political, economic and governance crisis engulfing the Irish polity since 2008.” Twelve scholars contribute to the volume.  Learn more about the book here.  SOG is the Structure and Organization of Government research committee of IPSA, the academic sponsor of Governance.

SOG is the IPSA Structure and Organization of Government Committee, the sponsor of Governance.  SOG member Robert H. Cox of the University of Oklahoma and Daniel Beland of the University of Saskatchewan are co-editors of a new book from Oxford University Press, Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research.  Frank Dobbin of Harvard University says that the book “provides cutting edge theoretical tools for conceptualizing ideas in the policy process, and illustrates these with a series of compelling case studies.”  Read more about the book.

SOG members David Coen (University College London) and Graham Wilson (Boston University) are co-editors, with Wyn Grant (University of Warwick), of the Oxford Handbook of Business and Government, just published by Oxford University Press.  The book “provides an authoritative overview with chapters by leading authorities on the current state of knowledge of business-government relations.”  OUP is offering a twenty percent discount on orders.

SOG member Raj Chari has a new book, co-authored with Gary Murphy and John Hogan, published by Manchester University Press: Regulating Lobbying: A Global Comparison.  Frank Baumgartner calls it “the single best resource for anyone interested in the topic of the regulation of lobbying or political transparency.”  Learn more about the book, and read the first chapter, at regulatelobbying.com.  Chari is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Trinity College Dublin.

A new book, Change and Continuity in Public Sector Organizations (Fagborkforlaget, 2009), has been published to honor Per Lægreid, SOG’s Secretary-Treasurer.  The edited volume includes contributions from Geert Bouckaert, Tom Christensen, Morten Egeberg, Anne Lise Fimreite, Robert Gregory, John Halligan, Bengt Jacobsson, Werner Jann, James G. March, Johan P. Olsen, Ove K. Pedersen and Per Selle.  The editors are Paul G. Roness and Harald Sætren of the University of Bergen.

SOG is the Structure and Organization of Government Group of the International Political Science Association, which sponsors Governance.  Learn how to join SOG.  SOG members receive a subscription to the print version of Governance.  New members in the month of January 2010 will receive a complementary copy of Paul Starr’s book Freedom’s Power: The True Force of Liberalism.

SOG member Christopher Pollitt of the Public Management Institute at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is co-author, with Geert Bouckaert, of a new book from Edward Elgar Press: Continuity and Change in Public Policy and Management.  The book provides a long-term view of policy developments in major public services in England and Belgium over the last half-century.  John Halligan says that the book contains “a pioneering and profound analysis that few current books in public policy and management can equal.”  Download the flyer.

SOG is the Structure and Organization of Government Group of the International Political Science Association, which sponsors Governance.  Learn how to join SOG.  SOG members receive a subscription to the print version of Governance.  New subscribers in the month of January 2010 will receive a complementary copy of Paul Starr’s book Freedom’s Power: The True Force of Liberalism.

SOG member Edoardo Ongaro of Bocconi University and the SDA Bocconi School of Management is author of a new book from Edward Elgar Press:  Public Management Reform and Modernization: Trajectories of Administrative Change in Italy, France, Greece, Portugal and Spain. Guy Peters calls it “a major contribution to understanding the political and administrative systems of Southern Europe . . . [and] an excellent example of comparative analysis in general.”

SOG is the Structure and Organization of Government Group of the International Political Science Association, which sponsors Governance.  Learn how to join SOG.  SOG members receive a subscription to the print version of Governance.  New subscribers in the month of January 2010 will receive a complementary copy of Paul Starr’s book Freedom’s Power: The True Force of Liberalism.