Alasdair S. Roberts

Sep 7

“Collapse of Fortress Bush” now on Kindle

My 2008 book The Collapse of Fortress Bush, published by New York University Press, is now available on Kindle. Details here. Kirkus Reviews called the book “A trenchant analysis of the last eight years of American political history. . . . A work of rare insight that fills gaps glaringly evident in most public discourse.” Choice said: “Roberts’ sound judgment and expertise in the field of public administration make this an excellent primer on governance in the Bush years.”

Sep 4

Discussion of “Large Forces” in Public Administration Quarterly

In the current issue of Public Administration Quarterly, Chester Robinson and Gloria Billingsley discuss my 2013 monograph Large Forces: What’s Missing in Public Administration: “Many problems on the public policy agenda reflect environmental factors, including political, economic, shifts in populations from farms to cities, and social conventions, some of which our society and leaders are not eager to take on. Alasdair Roberts, and other organic theorists, see the country’s policy decisions as being buffered by these powerful forces. To them, it seems impossible to fully understand the actions of government without studying the large forces that caused the problem to come into being. What government does, and how it does it, cannot be explained without accounting for the pressure applied by these forces. Large forces scholarship helps us to produce rigorous, persuasive and contextual answers to public policy issues.” Read their article.

Sep 1

Discussion of “Large Forces” monograph

On Baidu.com, Lihua Fang discusses my 2013 monograph, Large Forces: What’s Missing in Public Administration. Read Fang’s comment in Chinese. Read the Google translation.

Aug 21

Article in St. Joseph News-Press on “Four Crises”

I spoke with Ken Newton of the St. Joseph Free-Press about my forthcoming book Four Crises of American Democracy. Read the article.

Aug 20

Interview for Public Radio’s BackStory, on policing in America

Public Radio’s Backstory has just rebroadcast a show that includes a discussion between me and Peter Onuf of the University of Virginia on the development of policing in the United States. The interview drew on work from America’s First Great Depression and The End of Protest. Listen to BackStory’s show on policing in America. My interview begins at the fifteen-minute mark. My segment is titled “Running the riot.”

Jul 31

RFI story on WikiLeaks

I’m quoted in a July 29 story by Radio France Internationale on WikiLeaks. Read the story. I provided a skeptical view about WikiLeaks’ impact in a 2011 article in the Wilson Quarterly, The WikiLeaks Illusion. Read the 2011 article. A longer academic version of that article also appeared in the International Review of Administrative Sciences in 2012. Read the 2012 article.

Jul 19

Keynote address at conference on democratic governance

I gave the keynote address at the 3rd International Conference on Democratic Governance in the Developing World in Washington, DC on July 19. My topic was “One world: Building a single body of knowledge for statecraft.” Listen to the address here | Overview of the conference here.

Jul 17