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Posts from the ‘Against Centralism’ Category

Nov 27

Policy brief on centralization

I’ve written a policy brief for the Centre on Governance and Markets, Why Centralization Goes Wrong. You can download it here.

Nov 15

Corry Lecture in 2026

I’ll present the J.A. Corry Lecture in Political Studies at Queen’s University on March 5, 2026. More details coming later in 2025.

Sep 29

NAPA Management Matters podcast

I participated in a Management Matters podcast, hosted by James-Christian Blockwood, president of the National Academy of Public Administration, on international perspectives on the American crisis. Professor Andrew Podger also participated. Listen here.

Sep 23

Speaker at National Federalism Initiative Summit

I’m looking forward to participating in the inaugural National Federalism Initiative Summit, to be held in Salt Lake City on September 25-26. Details to follow.

Sep 17

Column on UoG CPP blog on centralisation

I’ve written a short piece for the blog of the Centre for Public Policy at University of Glasgow, “The temptation and danger of centralisation.” It goes along with my comments in a plenary session at the EGPA conference in Glasgow on August 29, 2025.

Sep 1

Presentation at American University of Cairo

On September 17, I will give a presentation by Zoom to a faculty research colloquium in the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University in Cairo. Details about the talk are here. The presentation will be based on my recent article on the crisis of design in American government.

Jun 30

“Crisis of Design” published in APJPA

My article “The Crisis of Design in American Government” has just been published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration. Read it here. This paper is based on my May 2025 Levine Lecture at American University. You can watch a short explainer video about the article here.

Jan 6

“Against Centralism” under contract with OUP

My next book project, Against Centralism: How Concentrating Political Power Makes Things Worse, is now under contract with Oxford University Press. OUP also published my 2010 book The Logic of Discipline and my 2016 book Four Crises of American Democracy.

Updates:

I posted the draft preface for the book on SSRN on April 10.

I posted a draft of Chapter 1, “The Centralizing Century,” on SSRN on April 29.

Comments on these draft chapters are welcomed!