Dec 28
I will give a talk to graduate students in the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University on January 7, 2021. The topic is: “Strategies for governing: The challenge for democracies.” Powerpoint for the talk here.
I’ve written a short comment for Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, “How to bridge East and West.” Manuscript here. Abstract: Today, the field of public administration has two problems that can be fixed with one solution. The first problem is fixation on a limited set of “middle-level” topics in public administration. The second problem is a bias toward scholarship generated within a very small number of Western democracies. We can fix both problems by adopting an approach to scholarship that focuses on the macro-level of public administration — that is, on questions of grand strategy and statebuilding.
A short paper that I’ve co-written with Don Moynihan is now forthcoming in Public Administration Review: “Dysfunction by design: Trumpism as administrative doctrine.” Read the MS here. Read on the PAR website.
On October 29, I spoke with Professor Carsten Greve about “pandemic, paradigm change, and the implications for public management,” as part of his course on “Leading reform” for the Master of Public Governance program at Copenhagen Business School.
Watch the presentation here.
I’ve recorded a short podcast with GovExec Daily about “changing governance models and the pandemic.” Listen here.
I participated in a conversation with Kyle Harper, author of The Fate of Rome, as part of the Munro Institute seminar at Western Washington University on October 27, 2020. Watch the seminar here.
My article, “The pandemic exposes an ailing US governance model,” is published in the November 2020 issue of Current History. Download the article here.
Oct 9
In its October 2020 issue, ACRL’s Choice Magazine recommends Strategies for Governing: Reinventing Public Administration for a Dangerous Century (Cornell University Press, 2019). From the review: “Is it time for public administration to broaden its vision? Roberts (Univ. of Mass., Amherst) puts forth the provocative argument that the field has narrowed to a public management approach centered on processes within administrative states, and he advocates for public administration to embrace a global perspective and add country-level analysis. Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.”
Other comments on the book here | Order on Amazon | Excerpt here.
I’ve just published a short comment in Canadian Public Administration that summarizes the argument in my book Strategies for Governing. Open access here.
In Perspectives on Politics, Jennifer Selin reviews Strategies for Governing: “Overall, Strategies for Governing has broad implications for research, teaching, and practice in a variety of disciplines and subfields. The book’s insights provide readers with fresh perspectives on important research questions in public administration, public policy, American politics, international relations, and comparative politics. Perhaps most notably, Roberts encourages us to return to first principles and to address the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of government.” Review here.
Alasdair S. Roberts 
