Panel on administrative traditions at ICPP conference
I will co-chair a panel on administrative traditions in public administration research at International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP4) in Montreal on June 27. Details about the panel here.
May 12
Panel at CAPPA conference
I will participate in the closing plenary panel at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) in Montreal on May 24. The topic: “Public Administration Scholarship in Canada: From an uncomfortable conversation to a productive strategic dialogue.” The conference program is here. My own contribution will be based on this comment written for Canadian Public Administration last year.
Review of “Can Government Do Anything Right?”
Public Administration Review has just published a review of Can Government Do Anything Right? The review by Alfred T.-K. Ho also looks at Can Government Earn Our Trust? by Donald Kettl. Ho says the books are “timely, well organized, and highly accessible . . . Both deserve much attention in our field and have set the stage for more future dialogue and a much-needed rethinking of democratic governance in the twenty-first century.” Read the review.
Panelist at OP Jindal/NASPAA conference
I was a panelist at the conference on public affairs education in South Asian co-hosted by the O.P. Jindal Global University and NASPAA in Sonipat, India on February 25-26.
Feb 25
Comments on “Strategies for Governing”
Comment from Donald Kettl of the LBJ School of Public Affairs on Strategies for Governing (Cornell University Press, December 2019): “Alasdair Roberts is one of the most thoughtful scholars working in public administration today, and Strategies for Governing is an important and challenging book. It will be an instant classic—a must-read for established researchers and budding scholars.”
Mary Guy of the University of Colorado-Denver: “Just in time, Alasdair Roberts makes a provocative argument urging public administration to return to basics! Strategies for Governing rediscovers the field’s roots and describes a conceptual and practical route back to relevance in public life.”
Evert Lindquist, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria: “Written before the COVID-19 epidemic struck, Alasdair Roberts’ Strategies for Governing is a remarkable book for these disconcerting times. Roberts calls for reinvigoration of public administration research and debate about the overall priorities and structure of our public administration systems, arguing that scholars have focused too much on specific public management challenges over the last thirty years. Like the progenitors of the scholarly field of public administration, he asks us to think about designing macro governing strategies for the grand challenges we will face over the next decade and beyond.”
Richard Callahan, University of San Francisco: “Strategies for Governing engages the readers in the big questions of the practice and study of public administration, breaking new ground in connecting strategy with governance. Roberts crafts a compelling argument for connecting public administration to its founding values and questions as a way of moving forward in this century.”
“Roberts succinctly makes a timely case in favor of large concerns about governing . . . While dealing with currently urgent realities of the field, the analysis makes a contribution to last.” — American Review of Public Administration, June 2020.
“Roberts is masterful at distilling complex concepts into a digestible format, through which both new students and senior scholars can engage and argue. The book provides an opportunity to have a critical conversation about the boundaries of Public Administration.” — Governance, July 2020.
“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.” — Perspectives on Politics, August 2020.
“[Roberts] has nudged us in the right direction to reawaken why public administration . . . is a field uniquely situated to link theory and practice at a macro-societal level . . . On that point alone, we all owe Roberts a great intellectual debt.” — Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, October 2020.
Talk on “Can Government Do Anything Right?”
I’ll talk about my book Can Government Do Anything Right? in Professor Jon Rose’s class on Contemporary Issues in Politics at Queen’s University on March 25.
Talk at Universidad de los Andes
I’ll speak at the School of Government of the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, February 11-12, 2019. The title of my talk: “Governing well in a turbulent world.” PDF of Powerpoint here.
Comment on “Can Government Do Anything Right?”
Dean Sherry Glied of the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service comments on Can Government Do Anything Right?, published by Polity Books in April 2018: “Alasdair Roberts’ pithy, accessible, and refreshingly non-partisan book offers a pragmatic yet optimistic view of the benefits and future of government. While thoughtfully acknowledging a broad range of complaints about the representativeness and effectiveness of Western democracies, Roberts persuasively counters by pointing out the undeniable progress and accomplishments of these governments. His broad thesis–that democratic institutions work because they adapt to changing circumstances, often in unexpected ways–should provide both hope and inspiration to students and readers who despair about our current situation.” See all comments on this book.
Rethinking American public administration
Links to some of my work focusing on the need to develop a new approach to American public administration:
Strategies for Governing, Forthcoming from Cornell University Press, 2019.
It’s a turbulent world. The Conversation and Salon, March 2, 2018.
Grand strategy isn’t grand enough, ForeignPolicy.com, February 20, 2018.
Strategies for Governing: An Approach to Public Management Research for West and East. Korean Journal of Policy Studies, 33.1 (2018).
The aims of public administration: Reviving the classical view. Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 1.1 (2018).
Lecture. Statecrafting: A new approach to public administration. Presentation to the BK21 Conference organized by the Graduate School of Public Administration of Seoul National University in New York City on Saturday, January 14, 2017.
Why realism is central to public administration. Medium.com, December 26, 2016.
For public administration, fragility is the new reality. Medium.com, October 7, 2016.
Lecture. One world: Building a single body of knowledge for statecraft. Keynote address to 3rd International Conference on Democratic Governance in the Developing World, Washington DC, July 19, 2016.
Public management: A flawed kind of statecraft, in Milward et al. “Is Public Management Neglecting the State?” Governance 29, no. 3 (2016): 1-26.
Large Forces: What’s Missing in Public Administration. CreateSpace: October 2013.
What’s wrong with the intellectual history of Public Administration, Public Voices, 11.2 (2010), pp. 10-14.
The path not taken: Leonard White and the macrodynamics of administrative development. Public Administration Review, 69.4 (July/August 2009): 764-775.
Presentation at SNU/ASU conference
I’ll present at the ASU-SNU BK21 International Conference in Phoenix on January 15-16, 2019. Details about the conference here. My presentation, tied to my new book project, is titled “Can superstates survive?”. PPT for the presentation here.
Alasdair S. Roberts 
