Publications (All)

Books · Edited Books · Journal Articles · Book Chapters · Magazine and Web Articles · Newspaper Op-Eds · Book Reviews and Review Essays · Other Publications and Manuscripts

Books

• Top-Heavy: How Over-Centralization Is Breaking American Government. Under contract with Oxford University Press.
• Why Great States Fail (2026 Corry Lecture). Forthcoming from McGill-Queen’s University Press, April 2027.
• The Adaptable Country: How Canada Can Survive the Twenty-First Century. McGill-Queen’s University Press, September 2024.
• Superstates: Empires of the Twenty-First Century. Polity Books, January 2023.
• Strategies for Governing: Reinventing Public Administration for a Dangerous Century. Cornell University Press, 2019.
• Can Government Do Anything Right? Polity Books. April 2018.
• Four Crises of American Democracy. Oxford University Press. January 2017.
• The End of Protest: How Free-Market Capitalism Learned to Control Dissent. Cornell University Press, Cornell Selects, 2013. Paperback, November 2016.
• America’s First Great Depression: Economic Crisis and Political Disorder After the Panic of 1837. Cornell University Press. Hardcover: April 2012. Paperback: January 2013: Audible AudioBook: June 2013.
  Chinese language edition: 1837年大恐慌：美国第一次经济危机和政治混乱 (Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company, 2019)
• The Logic of Discipline: Global Capitalism and the New Architecture of Government. Oxford University Press, March 2010 (Hardcover), August 2011 (Paperback).
  Spanish language edition: La lógica de la disciplina: el capitalismo global y la arquitectura del gobierno (México: CIDE, 2018)
• The Collapse of Fortress Bush: The Crisis of Authority in American Government. New York: New York University Press, 2008. Kindle version, 2016.
• Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age. New York: Cambridge University Press 2006 (Hardcover), 2007 (Paperback).
• So-Called Experts: How American Consultants Remade the Canadian Civil Service, 1918-21. Toronto: Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 1996.
  Also published as Kindle edition, 2012.

Edited Books

• Governance and Public Security (Syracuse: Campbell Public Affairs Institute, 2002)
• Constructing Civic Virtue (Syracuse: Campbell Public Affairs Institute, 2003)
• National Security and Open Government (Syracuse: Campbell Public Affairs Institute, 2004)

Journal Articles

• “Blaming the States: How A Sixth of Humanity Goes Wrong,” Indian Politics & Policy, 6.1 (Spring 2026): 117-138. (Open access)
• “Advancing Administration and Human Rights,” Journal of Health and Human Services Administration 49.1-2 (2026): 5-10. With Jessica Kritz, Hillary J. Knepper, Lindsey Bouzan, Siobhán Mitchell, Saif Tarek Abdelrasol and Roma Jha.
• “The Crisis of Design in American Government,” Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, 47.4 (2025): 321-343. (Open access)
• “False Globalism: American Public Administration in the early Twenty-First Century,” Administrative Theory & Praxis, Published January 2025. (Open access)
• “The Concept of the Strategic State: An Assessment After Thirty Years,” Australian Journal of Public Administration, Published December 2024. With I. Elliott.
• “Rudderless in the storm? The crisis of adaptability in Canadian government,” Canadian Public Administration, 67.4 (December 2024), 439-448.
• “Improving Adaptability in Democratic Systems.” Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration 46.2 (2024): 109-112.
  Earlier version: Policy Briefs No. 25, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo, September 2023.
• “Roundtable: How Do We Connect Public Administration and Human Rights?” Perspectives on Public Management and Governance (November 2023). With William Resh, Rumki Basu, Gedion Onyango, Helen Sullivan, Alketa Peci, Naim Kapucu, Rahel Schomaker, and Valentina Mele.
• “Abolishing India’s Planning Commission: The Results After Five Years,” Public Administration Review (June 2021).
• “Dysfunction by design: Trumpism as administrative doctrine.” Public Administration Review, 81.1 (Jan/Feb 2021). With D. Moynihan.
• “Who should we count as citizens? Classifying people in public administration research,” Public Administration Review, 81.2 (March/April 2021), 286-290.
• “‘Whatever it takes’: Danger, Necessity and Realism in American Public Policy.” Administration and Society, July 2020.
• “Grand politics and public administration,” International Journal of Policy Studies 11.1 (July 2020): 5-19.
• “The Third and Fatal Shock: Pandemic and the Death of the Millennial Paradigm,” Public Administration Review 80.4 (July/August 2020), 603-609.
• “Should we defend the administrative state?” Public Administration Review, 80.3 (May/June 2020), 391-401.
• “Bearing the White Man’s Burden: American Empire and the Origin of Public Administration,” Perspectives on Public Management and Governance (2019).
• “Bridging levels of public administration: How macro shapes meso and micro,” Administration & Society 52.4 (2020): 631-656.
• “Shaking hands with Hitler: The politics-administration dichotomy and engagement with fascism.” Public Administration Review, 79.2 (2019), 267-276.
• “Strategies for governing: A new approach to public management research for West and East.” Korean Journal of Policy Studies, 33.1 (April 2018): 33-56.
• “The Aims of Public Administration: Reviving the Classical View.” Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 1.1 (2018): 73-85.
• “Globalization and the Growth of Executive Power: An Old Story.” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 24, no. 2 (2017): 497-511.
• “Is Public Management Neglecting the State?” Governance 29.3 (2016): 1-26. With H. Brinton Milward, Laura Jensen, Mauricio I. Dussauge-Laguna, Veronica Junjan, René Torenvlied, Arjen Boin, H.K. Colebatch, Donald Kettl, and Robert F. Durant.
• “No Simple Fix: Fiscal Rules and the Politics of Austerity.” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 22, no. 2 (2015): 401-431.
• “Why the Occupy Movement Failed,” Public Administration Review, 72.5 (September/October 2012): 754-762.
• “WikiLeaks: The Illusion of Transparency,” International Review of Administrative Sciences, 78.1 (March 2012): 116-133.
  Working paper version on SSRN, April 2011: papers.ssrn.com
• “The Rise and Fall of Discipline: Economic Globalization, Administrative Reform, and the Financial Crisis,” Public Administration Review, 70:s1 (December 2010): s56-s63.
• “Harris’ Mirage: The Positive Service State,” Public Administration Review, 70:s1 (December 2010): s268-s272.
• “A Great and Revolutionary Law? The First Four Years of India’s Right to Information Act,” Public Administration Review, 70.6 (November-December 2010), pp. 925-933.
  A summary appeared as “India’s Right to Information Act: The first four years,” freedominfo.org, January 13, 2010.
• “What’s wrong with the intellectual history of Public Administration,” Public Voices, 11.2 (2010), pp. 10-14.
• “An ungovernable anarchy: The United States’ response to depression and default, 1837-1848,” Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, 45.4 (July-August 2010), 1-7.
• “The Triumph of Loyalty Over Competence: The Bush Administration and the Exhaustion of the Politicized Presidency,” Public Administration Review 70.4 (July-August 2010): 574-581. With D. Moynihan.
• “The Path Not Taken: Leonard White and the Macrodynamics of Administrative Development.” Public Administration Review, 69.4 (July/August 2009): 764-775.
• “Commercializing Air Traffic Control: Have the Reforms Worked?” Canadian Public Administration, 51.1 (Spring 2008): 45-69. With Glen McDougall.
• “The Limits of Control: The Market State, Divided Power, and the Response to 9/11,” International Public Management Journal, 9.3 (Fall 2006): 313-332.
• “Spin control and freedom of information: Lessons for the United Kingdom from Canada.” Public Administration (UK), 83.1 (Spring 2005): 1-23 (Lead article).
  Reprinted in Sean Hier and Josh Greenberg, eds., The Surveillance Studies Reader, Open University Press, 2007, 307-322.
• “Les faces cachées de la résistance gouvernementale à la transparence,” éthique publique, 6.2 (Fall 2004), pages 33-43.
• “ORCON creep: Networked governance, information sharing, and the threat to government accountability.” Government Information Quarterly, 21.3 (July 2004): 249-267 (Lead article).
• “A partial revolution: The diplomatic ethos and transparency in intergovernmental organizations.” Public Administration Review, 64.4 (July-August 2004): 408-422. (Lead article).
• “National security and open government.” Georgetown Public Policy Review, 9.2 (Spring 2004): 69-85.
• “In the Eye of the Storm? Societal Aging and the Future of Public Service Reform.” Public Administration Review, 63.6 (November/December 2003): 720-733.
• “Entangling Alliances: NATO’s Security of Information Policy and the Entrenchment of State Secrecy.” Cornell International Law Journal, 36.2 (2003): 329-360.
• “NATO, secrecy, and the right to information,” East European Constitutional Review, 11.4/12.1 (Fall 2002/Winter 2003): 86-94.
  Translated as “NATO, sekretnost’ i pravo na informaziju,” Konstituzionnoe Pravo: Vostochnoevropejskoe Obozrenie (2003) 2.43.
  Excerpted as “NATO’s web of secrets,” Freedom of Information Review (Australia), 100 (August 2002), pages 46-47.
• “Administrative discretion and the Access to Information Act: An ‘internal law’ on open government?” Canadian Public Administration, 45.2 (Summer 2002): 175-194.
• “The Commissioner as regulator: Improving strategies for enforcement of the Access to Information Act,” Queen’s Law Journal, 27 (Winter 2002), pp. 647-683.
• “Multilateral institutions and the right to information: Experience in the European Union,” European Public Law 8.2 (June 2002): 255-275.
  Excerpted in Freedom of Information Review (Australia), 96 (December 2001): 46-49.
• “Lockbox Government: Segregated Funding Strategies and the Decline of Governmental Flexibility.” Governance 15.2 (April 2002), pp. 241-270.
• “Structural pluralism and the right to information.” University of Toronto Law Journal, 51.3 (July 2001), pp. 243-271.
  Reprinted as “Szervezeti pluralizmus a közigazgatásban és az információhoz való jog,” Fundamentum 2004.4: 5-20. (Budapest, Hungary: IDOK.)
  Abridged in R. Calland and A. Tilley, eds., The Right to Know, the Right to Live: Access to Information and Socio-economic Justice. Cape Town, South Africa: Open Democracy Advice Centre, 2002, pp. 28-46.
  Reprinted in Man and Development 24:4 (December 2002): 199-228. Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh, India.
• “Less Government, More Secrecy: Reinvention and the Weakening of Freedom of Information Law.” Public Administration Review, 60.4 (July-August 2000), pp. 298-310.
• “Retrenchment and Freedom of Information: Recent Experience Under Federal, Ontario, and British Columbia Law.” Canadian Public Administration, 42.4 (Winter 1999): 422-451.
• “Doubt and Deliberation: Making Strategy in Ontario’s Food Bank System.” International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior 3.3-4 (Summer 2000).
• “Performance-Based Organizations: Assessing the Gore Plan.” Lead article in Public Administration Review, 57.6 (November-December 1997), pp. 465-478.
• “The Unassailable Principle: Why Luther Gulick Searched For A Science of Administration.” International Journal of Public Administration, 21.2-4 (1998), pp. 235-274.
  Reprinted in J. Rabin, R. Munzenrider, and S. Bartell, Principles and Practices of Public Administration (Marcel Dekker, 2003). Part 1.5, Pages 1-16.
• “Style or Substance? Media Perceptions of Clinton’s Economic and Timber Summits.” Public Administration Quarterly, 21.2 (Summer 1997), pp. 227-250.
• “Worrying About Misconduct: The Control Lobby and the PS 2000 Reforms,” Canadian Public Administration, 39.4 (Winter 1996), pp. 489-523.
• “Why the Brownlow Committee Failed: Neutrality and Partisanship in the Early Years of Public Administration,” Administration & Society, 28.1 (May 1996), pp. 3-38.
• “Selling the Goods and Services Tax: Government Advertising and Public Discourse in Canada,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 28.2 (June 1995), pp. 311-30. With J. Rose.
• “The Brownlow–Brookings Feud: The Politics of Dissent Within the Academic Community,” Journal of Policy History 7.3 (Summer 1995), pp. 311-40.
• “‘Civic Discovery’ as a Rhetorical Strategy,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 14.2 (Spring 1995), pp. 291-307.
• “Demonstrating Neutrality: The Rockefeller Philanthropies and the Evolution of Public Administration, 1927–36,” Public Administration Review 54.3 (May-June 1994), pp. 221–8. (Lead article).
• “The Importance of Workplace Research,” Public Administration Quarterly 17.2 (Summer 1993), pp. 201–226.

Book Chapters

• “The United States and Canada: Twin Crises of Governance.” Forthcoming in M. P. Aristigueta and C. Hintea Eds., Democracy and Public Administration: At Risk around the World, Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar.
• “The strategic state: Making it work in multi-level democracies.” In J. Craft and E. Lindquist, eds., Governance in Turbulent Times (University of British Columbia Press, forthcoming 2027). With I. Elliott.
• “The universalization of fragility,” in Geert Bouckaert et al eds., Futures for the Public Sector (Leuven University Press, March 2025).
• “Estrategias Para Gobernar: Los Fundamentos De La Administración Pública.” In Debates Emergentes Sobre Administración Y Políticas Públicas, edited by Mauricio I. Dussauge-Laguna and Alberto Casas Benitez. Mexico City: FLACSO Mexico, 2025. 297–320.
• “Strategy at the state level,” in Handbook on Strategic Public Management, eds. Carsten Greve and Tamyko Ysa (Edward Elgar, 2023.)
• “A Fragile State: Federal Public Administration in the Twentieth Century,” in C. Dunn, ed., Handbook of Canadian Public Administration, Oxford University Press, 2002. Pages 18-36.
  Reprinted in second edition, 2010 and third edition, 2018.
• “Transparency in government,” in T. Bovaird and E. Löffler, eds., Public Management and Governance, 4th ed., London: Routledge, 2023.
  Earlier version in the 3rd edition, 2015, pp. 337-347.
• “How American democracy learns from crisis,” in Democracies XXI: A Paradigm Shift (Moscow: ISEPR Foundation, June 2015). Published in Russian and English.
• “Managing Fiscal Squeeze After the United States’ Panic of 1837,” in Christopher Hood and David Heald, eds., When the Party’s Over: The Politics of Fiscal Squeeze in Perspective (Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 2014).
• “The rise and fall of discipline: Economic globalization, administrative reform, and the financial crisis,” in M. Asensio, ed., Handbook de administração pública (Lisbon: INA Press), April 2013.
• “Open Secrets and Dirty Hands,” in The Secrets of Law, eds. Austin Sarat, Lawrence Douglas, and Martha Umphrey (Stanford University Press, 2012), pp. 25-45.
• “The Failure of the Guardians: Central Banking Reform and the Financial Crisis.” E. Bohne and C. Karlsson, eds., Repositioning Europe and America for Growth, Vol. 5 of the Transatlantic Public Policy Series (TPPS), Transaction Publishers, 2010.
• “Building Resilience: Macrodynamic Constraints on Governmental Response to Crises,” in Louise Comfort, Arjen Boin, and Chris Demchak, eds., Designing Resilience: Preparing for Extreme Events, University of Pittsburgh Press, May 2010.
• “Spin Control: The Struggle Over Access To Information,” in Shannon Sampert and Linda Trimble, eds., Mediating Canadian Politics, Pearson Canada, 2009.
• “Publishing Performance Information: An Illusion of Control?” In W. Van Dooren and S. Van de Walle, eds., Performance Information in the Public Sector, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pages 211-227.
• “Constraints on the US Response to Homeland Security Threats,” in Deborah E. Gibbons, ed., Communicable Crises: Prevention, Management and Resolution in an Era of Globalization, Information Age Publishing, 2007, pages 299-319.
• “Transparency in the Security Sector,” in A. Florini, ed., The Right to Know: Transparency for an Open World, Columbia University Press, 2007, pages 309-336.
• “The Struggle for Open Government,” Published as “La lucha por gobiernos abiertos,” in Irma Sandoval, ed., Corrupción y Transparencia (Mexico City, Siglo XXI Editores, s.a., 2006), pages 180-200.
  Re-published in I. Sandoval, ed., Contemporary Debates on Corruption and Transparency (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2011), pages 163-178.
• “Dashed Expectations: Governmental Adaptation to Transparency Rules,” in C. Hood and D. Heald, eds., Transparency: The Key to Better Governance?, Oxford University Press, 2006, pages 107-125.
• “Two challenges in the administration of the Access to Information Act,” In Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities, Government of Canada, Research Studies Volume 2: The Public Service and Transparency, 2006, pages 115-162.
• “The agency concept in North America: Failure, adaptation and incremental change.” In C. Talbot and C. Pollitt, eds., Unbundled Government, London: Routledge, 2004, pages 140-163. With Andrew Graham.
• “Public Service Reform and the New Security Agenda.” In Governance and Public Security. Syracuse: Alan K. Campbell Public Affairs Institute, 2002. Pages 129-145. With Donald P. Moynihan.
• “Acceso a la Información Gubernamental: Compendio de Temas,” in L. Neuman, ed., Acceso a la informacion: La llave para la democracia. Atlanta, GA: Carter Center, 2002. Pages 9-16.
  Originally prepared as “Access to government information: An overview,” for the Conference on Transparency for Growth in the Americas, Carter Center, Atlanta, May 1999.
  Also published as a working paper for Transparency International, Berlin.
• “The right to information and Jamaica’s proposed Access to Information Act,” in L. Neuman ed., Fostering Transparency and Preventing Corruption in Jamaica. Atlanta, GA: Carter Center, 2002. Pages 61-72.
• “Issues associated with the implementation of government-wide performance monitoring”, in Anwar Shah, ed., Measuring Government Performance in the Delivery of Services (Washington, DC: World Bank Operations Evaluation Division, 2002), pages 2-48.
• “Altered states: Public sector restructuring and governmental capacity,” in Richard Chaykowski, ed., Globalization and the Canadian Economy. Kingston: School of Policy Studies, 2001, pp. 105-132.
• “The Informational Commons at Risk,” in Daniel Drache, ed., The Market or the Public Domain: Global Governance and the Asymmetry of Power. London: Routledge, 2001, pp. 175-201.
• “The Department of Public Works and Government Services: Beautiful Theory Meets Ugly Reality,” in G. Swimmer, ed., How Ottawa Spends, Carleton University Press, 1996, pp. 171-203.

Magazine and Web Articles

• “Enough of Tactics to Deal with Trump. What Canada Needs Is a Strategy.” The Walrus, October 24, 2025.
• “The temptation and danger of centralisation,” University of Glasgow Centre for Public Policy blog, September 17, 2025.
• “The Crisis That Made Trump Possible Didn’t Start with Trump,” The Walrus, June 2025.
• Interview: “Trump wants Canada economically weak and politically divided,” The Hill Times, March 1, 2025.
• “Public administration in a dangerous age,” Public (Boletín del Instituto de Gobernanza y Dirección Pública de ESADE), February 2025.
• “Canada has spent over a century avoiding collapse: Can it keep going?”, The Walrus, January 2025.
• “Rudderless in the storm,” The Hill Times, February 15, 2025.
  Reproduced in Canadian Government Executive, May 2025.
• “Rise and Fall of Political Systems: A Realist Perspective,” Politics & Rights Review, September 2024.
• “A failing grade for political parties,” Guest column for Special Report on the Crisis of Trust in Government and Democracy (Toronto: Proof Strategies, February 2023).
• “What those mourning the fragility of American democracy get wrong,” The Conversation, January 29, 2021.
• “The hundred day mistake,” Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2021.
• “Pandemic closes a chapter in American history,” Current History, November 2020.
• “The age of unexceptionalism,” The Conversation, March 16, 2018.
• “It’s a turbulent world. Stop stressing and adapt.” The Conversation, March 1, 2018.
• “Grand strategy isn’t grand enough,” ForeignPolicy.com, February 20, 2018.
• “Let’s end ‘the hundred days’,” Oxford University Press Blog, April 29, 2017.
• “The nation-state: Not dead yet,” Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2015.
• “L’Etat-nation: toujours au poste,” Perspectives libres, numéro 13, April 2015, pp. 113-123.
• “Clinton’s reversal on openness may impact more than her presidential ambitions,” The Conversation, March 6, 2015.
• “Why Occupy lost its steam,” New Statesman, May 2-8, 2014.
• “What’s missing in public administration? The big picture.” PA Times, May 2014.
• “How default produced constitutional change,” PA Times, December 2013.
• “Who should run the Fed?” Foreign Affairs, September 23, 2013.
• “Fourth of July a day of bloody protest,” Bloomberg.com, July 3, 2013.
• “Triumph of the technocrats,” ProspectMagazine.co.uk, May 28, 2013.
• “Why Thatcher wasn’t her era’s most transformative leader,” Bloomberg.com, April 12, 2013.
• “Lessons from the political gridlock of 1842,” PBS NewsHour, February 28, 2013.
• “Obama says we must never default, but would it really hurt us if we did?” PBS NewsHour, February 13, 2013.
• “Warren Harding’s fatal quest for normalcy,” Bloomberg.com, November 12, 2012.
• “How Congress prevented the ‘fiscal cliff’ of the 1840s,” Bloomberg.com, October 24, 2012.
• “En qué falló el Occupy Movement,” Literal Magazine, September 2012.
• “How US naval power grew to match mercantile ambitions,” Bloomberg.com, August 31, 2012.
• “Post Office Blues,” Los Angeles Times, August 8, 2012.
• “Why Occupy failed,” ProspectMagazine.co.uk, June 2012.
• “The government we deserve,” Foreign Policy, May 2012.
• “Can Occupy Wall Street replace the labor movement?” Bloomberg.com, April 2012.
• “FDR’s ‘Dictatorship Plan’,” Bloomberg.com, March 2012.
• “Washington weathered a terrible economy and great power rivalry before,” History News Network, February 27, 2012 (Web).
• “Lessons for Europe from America’s First Great Depression,” Bloomberg.com, January 2012.
• “Containing outrage: How police power tames the Occupy movement,” Boston Review, November 2011 (Web).
• “The WikiLeaks Illusion,” Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2011, pp. 30-35.
• “The end of the guardians?” Public Money and Management, 31.4 (July 2011), pp. 232-233.
• “WikiLeaks and the transparency debate,” Public Servant, May 2011, pp. 10-11.
• “¿El fin de los guardianes?”, Public (Boletín del Instituto de Gobernanza y Dirección Pública de ESADE), October 2010.
• “The United States had a default crisis too.” Prospect Magazine, March 3, 2010.
• “The rise and fall of the guardians,” Foreign Affairs, January 25, 2010.
• “Right to information: Need for an enforcement strategy,” Accountability Forum, January 13, 2010.
• “The dangers of guardian rule,” Guardian Public, January 12, 2010.
• “The case against guardian power,” Suffolk Law School Alumni Magazine, Fall 2009, 19-21.
• “A Poorly Designed Solution for a Misdiagnosed Problem”, Administration & Society 41 (March 2009): 127-129. With David Van Slyke.
• “The War We Deserve,” Foreign Policy, 163 (November/December 2007), pages 44-50. (Cover story)
  Also appeared as “La guerra que ee uu se merece,” FP en español, November/December 2008.
• “Good Intentions, Bad Idea: Unlike the military institutes, the public service academy concept is flawed from the start,” Government Executive 39.12 (August 15, 2007), pages 92-93. With David Van Slyke.
• “The Global Movement for Governmental Transparency: The Challenges Ahead”, ABA Focus on Law Studies, 22.1 (Fall 2006). Pages 4-5 and 11.
• “Open Government: Challenges Ahead.” in L. Neuman, ed., Access to Information: Building a Culture of Transparency (Atlanta, GA: Carter Center, 2006). Pages 133-144.
• “An open dialogue on FOIA fee reform.” UCL Constitution Unit (January 2006).
• “System Failure,” Prospect (UK), 115 (October 2005), pages 13-14.
• “The Insider,” Saturday Night Magazine, October 2005, page 15.
• “The Lesson of Deep Throat,” Review of Woodward, The Secret Man, in Prospect (UK), 114 (September 2005), page 67.
• “What’s wrong with coordination?” Open Government 1.1 (March 2005).
• “Free to distrust.” Prospect (UK) 107 (February 2005), page 10.
• “The realities of FOI,” Freedom of Information (UK), 1.3 (January 2005), pages 10-13.
• “The fight for freedom is only just beginning” Guardian PUBLIC Magazine, December 2, 2004, pages 38-39.
• “NATO’s troubling secrecy,” BASIC Reports (UK), 86 (October 2004), pages 1-3.
• “Singled out for special treatment,” Media Magazine (Canada), 10.4 (October 2004), pp. 16-17.
• “Secrets and Lies,” Holyrood Magazine (Scotland) (September 2004), FOI Supplement 6-7.
• “Treatment of sensitive requests under British Columbia’s freedom of information law,” Freedom of Information Review 109 (February 2004): 2-4.
• “Australia’s ‘great surprise’ for the United States: Negotiating the 2002 Security of Information Agreement,” Freedom of Information Review 106 (August 2003), pages 50-51.
• “National security and open government,” Justice Initiatives: Newsletter of the Open Society Justice Initiative, June 2003.
• “The politics of open government,” Fraser Forum, May 2003, pages 5-6.
• “Two standards on access to information,” Policy Options magazine, May-June 2002, pp. 49-55.
• “Get ready for ATIA reform,” Media Magazine, May 2001.
• “Lockbox Government,” cover story in Government Executive, 32.5 (May 2000).
• “Measuring openness: steps you can take so governments respect access laws,” Media Magazine, 6.3 Fall 1999, p. 9.
• “How public sector restructuring limits access to government information,” Government Information in Canada, 17 (March 1999).
• “REGO around the world,” Government Executive, 31.1 (January 1999), pp. 45-51.
• “Access Denied,” Media Magazine, Spring 1998.
• “Quietly Limiting openness – the Canadian Experience,” FOI Review, 77 (1998), pp. 68-69.
• “Great Expectations.” [Review of Osborne and Plastrik, Banishing Bureaucracy], Washington Monthly, May 1997.
• “Command Performance,” Government Executive, 28.8 (August 1996), pp. 21-26.

Newspaper Op-Eds

• “We’re missing a vision for Canada,” Globe and Mail, September 20, 2025. Page 9.
• “Annual G7 summits are important. So why aren’t Canadian summits a thing?”, Globe and Mail, June 9, 2025.
• “Threat to democracy? We can blame ourselves,” Montreal Gazette, October 30, 2024, page A8. Reprinted in Vancouver Sun, November 1, 2024, page A7.
• “Fixing the federal public service won’t happen without an independent review,” Ottawa Citizen, October 9, 2024.
• “Beware attack on openness,” Winnipeg Free Press, October 15, 2014.
• “Transparency is vital in these times,” Dominion Post (New Zealand), November 20, 2012.
• “A precipitous situation, not without precedent,” Boston Globe, July 10, 2011.
• “Freedom of Information: From Millions To Billions,” distributed to several US newspapers through Sunshine Week 2008.
• “A Complex Battle Over Openness,” distributed to several US newspapers through Sunshine Week 2007.
• “The Bush Years, In A Word.” Washington Post, January 1, 2007, page A13.
• “The BlackBerry is the new poisoned fruit,” Ottawa Citizen, November 26, 2005, page B7.
• “A busy Liberal Cabinet,” National Post, September 23, 2005, page A16.
• “Needed: A FOIA Watchdog,” Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services, July 22, 2005.
• “The seven-year botch: How not to appoint an information commissioner,” Toronto Globe and Mail, July 7, 2005, Web Edition.
• “Cheating on the exam,” Toronto Star, June 22, 2005, page A15.
• “The hidden price of insecurity,” PA Times, April 2005, page 7.
• “Big Brother keeps secrets under wraps.” Syracuse Post-Standard, December 19, 2004, page C1.
• “Secret deals on civil liberties,” Ottawa Citizen, July 21, 2004.
• “Debate about openness vs. secrecy will persist,” Miami Herald, March 16, 2004.
• “What does NATO expect?” Dnevnik (Sofia, Bulgaria), October 15, 2003
• “Government secrecy is a law unto itself,” Vancouver Sun, September 23, 2003, page A13.
• “Canada’s thin commitment to transparency,” Toronto Globe and Mail, December 7, 2002.
• “Canadian officials used September 11 as excuse to restrict access to information,” Winnipeg Free Press, October 8, 2002. (An abbreviated version of this article was published as “Opportunistic secrecy,” Ottawa Citizen, October 15, 2002, Page A19)
• “Freedom laws remain under assault,” Winnipeg Free Press, May 9, 2002, Page A14. Also published as “War on open government,” Montreal Gazette, May 10, 2002, Page B3; “Access to information in peril,” Toronto Star, May 12, 2002, page 15.
• “The right to know — in a timely fashion,” Ottawa Citizen, May 7, 2002.
• “Losing accountability,” Ottawa Citizen, April 24, 1998.
• “After years of ridicule, government gets more respect and trust,” St. Petersburg Times, December 5, 2001. (Knight-Ridder News Service)
• “The department of secrets: The Chretien cabinet is using fears of terrorism to further restrict public access to information,” Ottawa Citizen, October 18, 2001, page A19.
• “Gauging the cost of less government,” Toronto Star, January 1, 2001, page A13.
• “Newfoundland’s toothless Freedom of Information Act,” St. John’s Telegram, October 27, 2000, page 6.
• “Victory of democracy is not assured,” Toronto Star, June 26, 2000, page A17.
• “Time to overhaul our aging access law,” Ottawa Citizen, April 4, 2000, page A19.
• “Freedom of information is no longer affordable,” Toronto Star, July 22, 1999, page A17, and Kitchener-Waterloo Record, July 22, 1999.
• “America’s big freeze-up,” Ottawa Citizen, January 19, 1999.
• “Delay, delay, delay,” Ottawa Citizen, November 25, 1998.
• “Making policy behind closed doors,” [Software Development Worker Pilot Project] Toronto Globe and Mail, 27 July 1998, page A11.

Book Reviews and Review Essays

• Review of Kettl, The Right-Wing Idea Factory, in Public Administration Review, October 2026.
• Review of Hess and Pfiffner, Organizing the Presidency, and Dickerson, The Hardest Job in the World, in American Review of Public Administration 52(7): 529-531.
• Review of Krishnan Kumar, Visions of Empire. Public Administration Review 79.3 (May/June 2019): 452-454.
• Review of Andrew Monaghan, Power in Modern Russia, Governance 31.4 (October 2018): 798-801.
• Review of Donald Kettl, Escaping Jurassic Government, Public Administration Review, 77.1 (January/February 2017).
• “Nice while it lasted,” Review of Joshua Kurlantzick, Democracy in Retreat. International Public Management Review, 16.1 (May 2015), pp. 236-240.
• “A future of ‘endemic failure’?”, Review of Peter Schuck, Why Government Fails So Often. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 34.2 (Spring 2015), pp. 479-482.
• “Smarter than we look,” Review of David Runciman, The Confidence Trap, in Acta Politica 50.2 (April 2015), pp. 242-245.
• “Democracy: The new opiate of the masses?” Review of John Dunn, Breaking Democracy’s Spell. Governance, 28.1 (January 2015), pp. 113-116.
• “How American law adapted to the administrative state,” Review of Daniel Ernst, Tocqueville’s Nightmare: The Administrative State Emerges in America, 1900-1940, in Public Administration Review. Published online November 2014.
• “The limits of ‘sensible centrism’.” Review of Mann and Ornstein, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks. Public Administration Review. Published online November 2014.
• “The slow death of the overload thesis.” Review of Micklethwait and Wooldridge, The Fourth Revolution, Public Administration 92.4 (December 2014), 1112-1114.
• “How railroads changed American government.” Review of Wolmar, The Great Railroad Revolution. Public Administration Review. Published online August 2014.
• “Migration: The real challenges.” Review of Collier, Exodus, Public Administration Review 74.3 (May/June 2014): 428-431.
• Review of G. Palast, J. Oppenheim, and T. MacGregor, Democracy and Regulation, in Public Management Review 7.1 (March 2005): 147-149.
• “The reform bubble bursts.” Review of Volume One of the Report of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, in Public Administration Review, 64.5 (September/October 2004): 625-629 (Lead review).
• Review of Jeffrey Rosen, The Naked Crowd, in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 23.4 (Fall 2004): 949-952.
• Review of Ann Florini, The Coming Democracy, in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 23.2 (Summer 2004): 398-401.
• Review of Colin Leys, Market-Driven Politics, in Governance 17.3 (July 2004): 449-452.
• Review of Mary Graham, Democracy by Disclosure, in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 22.4 (Fall 2003): 709-712.
• Review of Derek Bok, The Trouble With Government, in Canadian Public Administration 46.2 (Summer 2003): 266-269.
• Review of Richard M. Walker, Emma L. Jeanes and Robert O. Rowlands, Managing Public Services Innovation: The Experience of English Housing Associations, in Public Management Review 5.1 (2003): 137-139.
• Review of Behn, Rethinking Democratic Accountability, in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 21.3 (2002): 530-534.
• Review of Finkelstein, Transparency in Public Policy, in Public Administration Review 61.4 (July-August 2001): 507-508.
• Review of Flinders and Smith, Quangos, accountability and reform, in Canadian Public Administration 43.2 (Summer 2000): 227-30.
• Review of Gawthrop, Public Service and Democracy, Woodhouse, In Pursuit of Good Administration, and Bovens, The Quest for Responsibility, in Governance 13.2 (April 2000): 295-299.
• Review of Adams and Balfour, Unmasking Administrative Evil, in International Journal of Public Management 2.2 (2000): 393-398.
• Review of American and Canadian government-wide performance plans, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 18.1 (1999).
• Review of Naschold and von Otter, Public Sector Transformation: Rethinking Markets and Hierarchies in Government, in Evaluation and Program Planning, 20.4 (1997), pages 522-524.
• Review of Frederickson, The Spirit of Public Administration, and Cook, Bureaucracy and Self-Government, in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 17.1 (Winter 1998).
• “The New Progressives,” [Review of Osborne and Plastrik, Banishing Bureaucracy], Governance, 11.1 (January 1998), pages 128-129.
• Review of Anderson and Hill, eds., The Privatization Process: A Worldwide Perspective. in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 16.2 (Spring 1997), pp. 322-325.
• Review of Sabatier and Jenkins–Smith, eds., Policy Change and Learning, in Canadian Public Policy 20.3 (September 1994), pp. 334–335.
• Review of Jane Jacobs, Systems of Survival, in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 13.2 (Spring 1994), pp. 410–414.

Other Publications and Manuscripts

• How Centralization Goes Wrong. Policy Brief CGD 15-2025. Pittsburgh: Center for Governance and Markets, 2025.
• “Meeting the Challenges of International Engagement: An Approach for Scholarly Organizations.” Journal of Public Affairs Education 29.2 (2023): 127-133. As member of the ASPA President’s Committee on International Scholarly Engagement.
• “A modest case for scholarly nationalism.” Policy Briefs, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo, December 2022.
• Foreword. In H. E. Ali and S. Bhuiyan Eds., Institutional Reforms, Governance, and Services Delivery in the Global South (Springer, 2022), v-vii.
• “How to bridge East and West,” Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, February 2021.
• “Reinventing public administration for a dangerous century,” Canadian Public Administration, October 2020.
• “Problems of democratic statecraft,” Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, 42.1 (2020), 12-14.
• “UPSC Examination Papers on Public Administration in India.” In A. Farazmand, ed., Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance (Springer, 2020). With Aroon Manoharan.
• “Rethinking questions,” Economic and Political Weekly, December 28, 2019, 5.
• “Trapped in a silicon cage,” Administrative Theory & Praxis, 41.2 (2019): 102-109.
• “Question the system.” Contribution for Minnowbrook 50^th Anniversary Conference, August 2018.
• “Is this a club we want to join?” Canadian Public Administration, 61.3 (September 2018): 416-419.
• “Our Asian challenge.” Governance 30.4 (October 2017): 537-539.
• “Promoting Fiscal Openness,” Research note for Global Initiative on Fiscal Transparency, February 2015.
• “Making Transparency Policies Work: The Critical Role of Trusted Intermediaries,” Address to the International Seminar on Accountability and Corruption Control, Mexico City, 21 October 2014. Also published on freedominfo.org.
  Translated as: “Haciendo que las políticas de transparencia funcionen: el papel esencial de los intermediarios confiables,” RC Rendición de Cuentas, Vol. 1, no. 1 (2023).
• Large Forces: What’s Missing in Public Administration. CreateSpace: October 2013.
• “Access to Information: The Elements of Reform.” Prepared for Office of Information Commissioner, Government of Canada, October 2012.
• “Transparency in Troubled Times,” Keynote address at the opening plenary session of the Tenth World Conference of the International Ombudsman Institute, Wellington, NZ, November 14, 2012.
• “Exploring the ‘tangled web of proxy government'”, (Comment for H.G. Frederickson festschrift) Public Administration Review 72 (Special Issue, November 2012).
• “The new age of uncertainty.” Introduction to special issue of Governance, 25.1 (January 2012). With David Coen.
• “Future Challenges for the RTI Movement,” Keynote speech to the Fifth International Conference of Information Commissioners, Wellington, New Zealand, November 27, 2007.
• Evidence on operation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the House of Commons (UK), February 25, 2006.
• “The Effect of Technology on Bureaucratic Evasion of Transparency Rules,” prepared for symposium at Université catholique de Louvain, May 2005.
• “Transborder service systems: Pathways for innovation or threats to accountability?” Washington, DC: IBM Endowment for the Business of Government. Market-Based Government Series. March 2004.
• “Reform of Canada’s Access to Information Act,” Centre d’Etudes sur le Droit International et la Mondialisation, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, August 2002.
  First presented as a Statement to the MPs’ Committee on Access to Information, Ottawa, August 29, 2001.
• “An evidence-based approach to access reform.” School of Policy Studies Working Paper 22, July 2001. With Jonathan DeWolfe and Christopher Stack.
• “Protecting your right to information,” Address to the founding conference of Open Government Canada, Harbour Castle Hotel, Toronto, March 11, 2000.
• “Lessons from the international movement for government openness,” Address to the Media Association of Jamaica Seminar on Freedom of Information, February 22, 2000.
• “Three challenges to freedom of information.” Address to the Conference on the Right to Know, Communications Law Centre, Melbourne.
• “Ontario’s Freedom of Information Law: Assessing the Impact of the Harris Government Reforms,” Working Paper, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, May 1999. 19 manuscript pages.
• “Monitoring Performance by Federal Agencies: A Tool for Enforcement of the Access to Information Act,” Working Paper, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, March 1999. 18 manuscript pages.
• “Limited Access: Assessing the Health of Canada’s Freedom of Information Laws.” Working Paper, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University. April 1998. 85 manuscript pages.
• “Building a Common Services Department: The Establishment of Public Works and Government Services Canada.” Contract 94-276, Canadian Centre for Management Development. 1995. 64 manuscript pages.
• Case studies prepared for the Council for Excellence in Government, 1997-99. Each about 10 ms. pages: The America Reads Challenge; James Lee Witt and FEMA; Joe Dear and OSHA; Dan Goldin and NASA; Reform of the drug approval process within the FDA.