Jul 30
Public Sector, the magazine of New Zealand’s Institute of Public Administration, has published excerpts from my May lecture on Technocrats or populists: Who gained influence during the Global Financial Crisis? Read the article.
I’ve just finished a review of “Tocqueville’s Nightmare: The Administrative State Emerges in America, 1900-1940,” by Daniel Ernst. The review is forthcoming in Public Administration Review. Read the review.
My review of The Great Railroad Revolution by Christian Wolmar has just been published on Early View for Public Administration Review. I focus on the way in which this technological shock shaped American government. “The current fashion is to emphasize the ways in which ideology and institutional inertia constrain the governmental response to such shocks. But Wolmar tells a different story. In the long run, The Great Railroad Revolution suggests, the governmental response to this innovation was pragmatic, hard-headed, and flexible.” A draft of the review is also posted on SSRN.
Up Close, produced by University of Melbourne, has just posted an interview about my 2013 book The End of Protest. Listen to the interview here. Photo right: Interviewer Lynne Haultain and producer Eric van Bemmel.
I’ve made some final adjustments to my Large Forces monograph. Get it here or on my SSRN page.
I spoke with Radio New Zealand’s Wallace Chapman on May 25 about government secrecy. The interview was broadcast on RNZ’s Sunday Morning program. Listen to the interview on the web. Australia’s ABC Radio National also broadcast my interview with Jonathan Green on May 25. The interview, about The End of Protest, was part of Radio National’s Sunday Extra program. Listen to the interview on the web.
May 14:
Technocrats or Populists: Who gained influence during the global financial crisis?
Victoria University of Wellington
Meeting with Hon. Bill English, New Zealand’s Minister of Finance, May 13
May 16:
Keeping Government Secrets in the Information Age
Australia-New Zealand School of Government, Wellington
May 20:
Governance discussion: How should public policy studies change in the Asian Century?
Melbourne School of Government
May 21:
Keeping Government Secrets in the Information Age
Australia-New Zealand School of Government, Melbourne
May 21:
The End of Protest
Melbourne Social Equity Institute
Lecture at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, May 27
May 23:
Keeping Government Secrets in the Information Age
University of Tasmania Law School on May 23
May 27:
Keeping Government Secrets in the Information Age
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore
Talk to the LKY Doctoral Conference on Asian public policy issues. Read the summary of the conference and my comments here.
I will be presenting my Large Forces paper at the IPSA conference in Montreal on July 22. Details on the session. This is one of the sessions organized by IPSA’s Structure and Organization of Government Committee, which is also the academic sponsor of Governance.
The following comment was published in the print edition of ASPA’s PA Times in May 2015. Download the PDF.
It is a sad truth that the field of American public administration does not enjoy the respect among the public that it did two generations ago. This is partly a self-inflicted wound. Scholars in public administration have made choices that have undercut the public’s interest in the work they do. Read more
Alasdair S. Roberts 
