Nov 13
On November 13, I will participate in a pre-conference symposium on imperial administration at the annual meeting of the American Society for Legal History in Detroit. The theme of the panel is “The Boomerang Effect in American Imperial Administration.” I’ve written a Substack column as background for my comments on the panel.
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.
I participated in two sessions at the annual conference of the IIAS European Group for Public Administration in Glasgow on August 27-29. On August 27, I gave a presentation based on my open-access article, “The Crisis of Design in American Government.” On August 28, I participated in a plenary session on “EU Relations in Turbulent Times.”
On August 21, I will give a presentation to the National Conference on State Capacity, hosted by the Administrative Staff College of India in Hyderabad. Details to follow.
On April 25, I participated in the conference on self-governance and pluralism organized by the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. Details about the conference here. I spoke about my work on centralization and decentralization in government.
I’ve written a short paper, “The universalization of fragility,” for the international seminar on future trends for the public sector, Instituut voor de Overheid, KU Leuven, February 8-9, 2024. Read the paper here.
The paper will be published in Futures for the Public Sector (Leuven University Press, 2025).
Abstract: “State fragility has been regarded as a problem found only in the developing world. In the twenty-first century, however, it will become a characteristic of states in the Global North as well. Everywhere, leaders and citizens will be preoccupied with basic problems of state cohesion and control. Fears about the decay of political stability and public order may undermine faith in democracy and encourage a shift to authoritarianism. To survive, democratic systems must improve their adaptability and resist the temptation to centralize authority in the face of crisis. Public administration scholars must also revise ideas and methods to remain relevant in this century. New ways of thinking about the field of public administration are required. Unfortunately, it is not clear that scholarly institutions have the motivation to make the necessary changes. So, academia itself faces a problem of adaptability as well.”
I delivered a keynote address at the National Conference on Resilient Institutions hosted by the Institute for Research on Public Policy in Ottawa on June 13, 2023. More details about the lecture here.
The text of the lecture is available here.
On April 5, 2023, I participated in the ASPA SICA Ferrel Heady roundtable on the “future of comparative public administration.” More information, and watch the roundtable here.
On March 10, I will moderate a panel discussion on adaptability in government, featuring panelists Jennifer Ditchburn of the Institute for Research on Public Policy, Yamini Aiyar of the Centre for Policy Research, and Geoff Mulgan of University College London. It is part of the Canada School of Public Service’s Government of the Future series. More details here. Watch on YouTube here.
On October 11, I will moderate a discussion on improving accountability for public services in India. More details here.
Alasdair S. Roberts 
