Explaining the dance between agencies and interest groups
Current theories about the relationship between public agencies and interest groups are deficient in two ways, Caelesta Braun of the University of Antwerp argues in the current issue of Governance. They neglect the variation in incentives that agencies face to engage with interest groups, as well as the groups’ own incentives to engage with agencies. Braun uses survey data from British and Dutch bureaucrats and interest group leaders to test a more complex theory of agency-group interaction. This new approach, says Braun, offers “a fruitful way forward” in explaining policymakers’ responsiveness to interest groups. Read the article.
Refining the concept of polycentricity
The 2009 Nobel Prize awarded to Elinor Ostrom brought new attention to the concept of polycentric governance, first envisaged by Michael Polanyi sixty years earlier. In the current issue of Governance, Paul D. Aligica and Vlad Tarko of George Mason University argue that the project of defining the concept of polycentricity is not yet completed. The authors explain the three basic features of polycentricity and outline a framework that shows how the concept can be used more broadly. Read the article.
Aucoin: How NPM went wrong
In an influential 1990 Governance article, Peter Aucoin argued that New Public Management wrestled with a tension between empowering public servants and tightening political control over them. In the current issue of Governance, Aucoin argues that in many cases the drive for political control has won out, producing what he calls the New Political Governance (NPG). NPG has four features: the harnessing of administration to a “continuous campaign” for reelection; the rise of political staff as a “third force” in governance; the politicization of senior administrative appointments; and an expectation of public service loyalty to the government of the day. Open access to the article.
Peter Aucoin passed away in July 2011. This article was in the final stages of review at Governance at the time. The editors are pleased to publish it in recognition of Professor Aucoin’s service to the journal and the field of public administration.
The current issue also includes two comments on Aucoin’s article. Jonathan Boston of Victoria University of Wellington asks how many of the elements of NPG are really new. And J.R. Nethercote of Australian Catholic University acknowledges the pressure of accelerated news cycles and continuous campaigns, but suggests that Westminster systems do correct themselves after excesses of politicization. Read the commentaries.
Free download of “Explorations in 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.
Book reviews: How the FDA builds its power; Doctors’ conflicts of interest
In the current issue of Governance, David DeMortain of Université Paris-Est reviews Daniel Carpenter’s Reputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA. DeMortain says it is “likely to become a gold standard for the study of regulatory agencies.” Read the review. And Ian Greener of Durham University reviews Conflicts of Interest and the Future of Medicine by Marc Rodwin. “A very good book indeed,” says Greener, which ought to be widely used to illuminate “the kinds of challenges the profession faces in relation to conflicts of interest.” Read the review.
Making legislative oversight work in Ghana
In a research note in the current issue of Governance, Rick Stapenhurst and Riccardo Pelizzo of the World Bank Institute examine a success story in “constitutional engineering”: the establishment of effective legislative oversight mechanisms within Ghana’s parliament. Improved legislative oversight, they argue, has enhanced the reputation of parliament. Low levels of partisanship and a general demand for good governance have helped to make the reforms work. Read the research note.
