May 21
The Global Initiative For Fiscal Transparency has posted my short paper on promoting fiscal openness. “To some extent we are seeking to achieve the benefits of democratization in the realm of fiscal policy, without risking the policy instability that has historically been associated with democratic processes.” Get the paper.
A translation of my article “The nation-state: Not dead yet” has just been published in Perspectives libres No. 13 (April 2015). Details here.
My book project currently titled “Four Crises of Democracy” is now under contract with Oxford University Press. Learn more about the project here.
Governance has just published a review of The End of Protest. Sina Odugbemi says the book is “a good read, bracing and forthright . . . The prevailing myth of the early 21st century is that we are in the age of networked protests, where ordinary citizens empowered by amazing new technological tools can overcome their collective action challenges, launch revolutions, change governments, humble the powerful and create a brave new world. Roberts shows that all that is naive and overly optimistic. At the heart of the text is a policing and law-and-order story of how authorities in the major economies of the West figured out how to contain, manage and immobilize the hordes of networked protesters.” Read the review.
The journal Historical Materialism has published a review of The Logic of Discipline by Safi Shams. Link to the review.
I’ve just posted a short working paper on SSRN: The myth of institutional rigidity. Comments would be very much appreciated. Abstract follows: Read more
I gave a lunchtime talk at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore on March 9. More details here | Flyer here. The paper that was the basis of the lecture is available on SSRN. NUS Professor Rahul Sagar moderated the discussion.
I’ve written a column for The Conversation that contrasts Hillary Clinton’s email practices with previous commitments on governmental transparency. “The issue isn’t just whether Clinton complied with federal law. Over the years, Clinton subscribed to a higher standard on transparency. Her decision to privatize her email communications is not consistent with the strong statements on openness made by the Clinton and Obama administrations, and even her own State Department.”
In a new volume from Routledge, Public Administration Evolving, Richard Stillman calls Large Forces: What’s Missing in Public Administration a “challenging polemic” in the field. More details about Large Forces here.
In a February 25 speech in Dublin, European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly discusses my address to Mexico’s Accountability Network last October as well as earlier work on the effect of Wikileaks.
Alasdair S. Roberts 
