Skip to content

Posts from the ‘American government’ Category

Jun 25

Working paper on democracy in US & Canada

I’ve just finished a draft chapter for a forthcoming Edward Elgar volume edited by Maria Aristigueta and Calin Hintea. The volume is titled Democracy and Public Administration: At Risk Around the World, and my contribution is on the interconnected crises of governance in the US and Canada. Title and abstract below. Download here. Comments welcomed!

THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA: TWIN CRISES OF GOVERNANCE | ABSTRACT. The United States is suffering a crisis of governance, and therefore Canada is in crisis as well. The current American “crisis of democracy” is one of several experienced since 1900, all triggered by a collapse in confidence about national strategy in domestic and foreign affairs. The current crisis began before Trump’s election in 2016: since then, Trump’s actions have intensified and mutated the crisis. His policies since 2025 have also up-ended Canadian politics, triggering reconsideration of national strategy in that country too. The United States and Canada are both liberal democratic federations. But there are institutional and cultural differences between the countries that affect the pace and depth of strategic realignment. This chapter reminds us why the field of public administration must pay more attention to macro-level questions about system design, and think more explicitly about the preservation of democratic values, than it has in recent decades.

Jan 28

Talk to UMass Retired Faculty Association

I’m looking forward to talking with the UMass Retired Faculty Association on February 11. My topic is: “The United States and Canada: Twin Crises of Governance.” Some background reading here:

The Crisis of Design in American Government. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration 47.4 (2025): 321–343.

The US and Canada: Two Crises of Federalism. Substack (October 16, 2025).

Rudderless in the Storm: The Crisis of Adaptability in Canadian Governance. The Hill Times (February 15, 2025).

Apr 30

Interview on Trump’s “hundred days”

On April 30, I spoke with Sam Dingman of KJZZ FM about the dangers of the “hundred days” benchmark for new presidents. Listen here. The interview was based on my 2021 article for Wilson Quarterly, “The Hundred Day Mistake.”

Mar 18

Talk at UMass Law

On March 19, I gave a talk at UMass Law School about the crisis in American government, drawing on my current SSRN working paper. You can see the Powerpoint slides for this presentation here. Professor Richard Peltz-Steele provides a summary of the talk on his blog.