Aug 20
On September 16, I visited the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri to talk about my book The Adaptable Country.
And on September 17, I gave a lecture about the book at Missouri Southern State University, as one of their Canada Semester events. You can watch the lecture on YouTube:
I’ve written a working paper, “The strategic state: Making it work in multilevel democracies,” with Ian Elliott of the University of Glasgow. The paper is on SSRN.
“In a world of disruptive, interconnected crises, Roberts provides us with a warning: Canada is on the edge of an adaptability trap. Our institutions, and the people who work in them, must have the nimbleness and flexibility to sustain our democracy in the treacherous years ahead.” – Anne McLellan, Former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
“While too many people in Canadian politics are focussed only on winning, Alasdair Roberts has produced a pithy guide to making Canada succeed, with an emphasis on planning, coordination, and an informed citizenry.” – Paul Wells, award-winning journalist and author of The Longer I’m Prime Minister
“Providing essential insight into Canada’s unique governance model, Alasdair Roberts urges us to face the challenges to our democratic institutions. The Adaptable Country is a must-read, opening a conversation about how the federal establishment can better work for the next generation.” – Senator Peter Harder
“A hyper-relevant call to action, as Canadians feel increasingly unsettled about our collective stability and resilience. Roberts seeks to shake us out of our complacency and think strategically about a challenging future for which we’re likely ill-prepared.” – Jennifer Ditchburn, President & CEO, Institute for Research on Public Policy
“A lively read, The Adaptable Country explores how governance has evolved in Canada. More approachable and broader in scope than much academic work in Canadian governance/public administration, it draws on key anecdotes to engage and inform a wide general readership.” – Emmett Macfarlane, coauthor of Legislating under the Charter
“The Adaptable Country offers a unique view of government and governing in Canada. Roberts examines public administration, political party, civil society, and political culture issues to assess which of these components of the system has been diminished or is currently not up to the task.” – Brooke Jeffrey, author of Road to Redemption
Pre-order on Amazon (United States).
Pre-order on Amazon (Canada)
I’ve written a short paper, “The universalization of fragility,” for the international seminar on future trends for the public sector, Instituut voor de Overheid, KU Leuven, February 8-9, 2024. Read the paper here.
The paper will be published in Futures for the Public Sector (Leuven University Press, 2025).
Abstract: “State fragility has been regarded as a problem found only in the developing world. In the twenty-first century, however, it will become a characteristic of states in the Global North as well. Everywhere, leaders and citizens will be preoccupied with basic problems of state cohesion and control. Fears about the decay of political stability and public order may undermine faith in democracy and encourage a shift to authoritarianism. To survive, democratic systems must improve their adaptability and resist the temptation to centralize authority in the face of crisis. Public administration scholars must also revise ideas and methods to remain relevant in this century. New ways of thinking about the field of public administration are required. Unfortunately, it is not clear that scholarly institutions have the motivation to make the necessary changes. So, academia itself faces a problem of adaptability as well.”
In the May/June 2024 issue of Foreign Affairs, Shivshankar Menon of Ashoka University reviews my book Superstates, published by Polity in 2023. Menon writes: “[Roberts] offers an insightful account of superstates’ internal governance and a thoughtful exploration of their similarities in diversity, fragility, leadership structures, and ideology.” Read the full review.
Globe and Mail journalist Tom Cardoso recalls the Canadian government’s CAIRS database, which compiled Access to Information Act requests, in this blog post. As Tom mentions, I created a publicly accessible version of the database at Queen’s University in 2000.
I was a speaker in the discussion series on the future of democratic governance, at the School of Public Affairs and Administration, University of Kansas, on February 15, 2024. News story here. Title of my talk: The challenge to democracy: Is American public administration ready? The talk can viewed on YouTube here:
I’ll give a talk on human rights and public administration at Buffalo State University on March 1. Details here.
The US Council on Higher Education Accreditation will consider NASPAA’s application for reaccreditation at a public meeting in Washington on March 11, 2024. My submission regarding NASPAA’s application is here. My view: “NASPAA should not be re-accredited unless it: stops representing itself as a global organization and standard-setter, or establishes a system for representation in decision-making appropriate for a global organization; and expresses its commitment to academic freedom and human rights, and shows how it will apply these core values consistently in accreditation and other activities.”
The Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Administration has published a short commentary, “Improving adaptability in democratic systems,” that is drawn from my forthcoming book, The Adaptable Country. The commentary can be read here. | More information about the book here.
Alasdair S. Roberts 
