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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

Edited Books

Journal Articles

Book Chapters

Magazine and Web Articles

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.
  • “Reviving the Progressive Spirit of Public Administration.” Review of Donald Kettl, Escaping Jurassic Government. Public Administration Review, 77.1 (January/February 2017): 135-139.
  • “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

  • “Problems of Centralization.” Background note, Constitutional Federalism Initiative, Center for Constitutional Studies, Utah Valley University, August 2026.
  • How Centralization Goes Wrong. Policy Brief CGD 15-2025. Pittsburgh: Center for Governance and Markets, 2025.
  • “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.
  • “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.
  • “Question the system.” Contribution for Minnowbrook 50th Anniversary Conference, August 2018.
  • “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.
  • “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.