paul t hart

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Books by paul t hart

Observing Government Elites

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Drafts by paul t hart

Groups Are Dumber Than You Think (But We Can Make Them Smarter

Cass Sunstein is a hyper-productive polyglot US legal scholar who crossed the line from academia ... more Cass Sunstein is a hyper-productive polyglot US legal scholar who crossed the line from academia into government during the early years of the Obama presidency. He headed up the Office for Information and Regulatory Affairs, (OIRA) a division of the White House's powerful Office of Management and Budget. OIRA performs reviews of Federal regulations to ensure adequate interagency review of draft rules and to avoid inconsistent, incompatible, or duplicative policies. It also encourages retrospective review of regulations to promote an efficient regulatory system that keeps pace with modern technology and the changing needs of society. In other words, Sunstein was asked to bring his phenomenal brain to the challenge of making sure that any new regulation issued by the US government helps rather hinders, is 'smart' rather than dumb. Since stepping down from the role, he has characteristically, written two books about his experience on the inside and the work of OIRA in particular. Both sing the praises of a government that is empirical, one that makes decisions – regulatory or otherwise – based on 'evidence' rather than ideology or intuition.

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Political psychology

by paul t hart and Frank Mols

Spanning systematic research, teaching and public outreach for the best part of a century, the in... more Spanning systematic research, teaching and public outreach for the best part of a century, the interdisciplinary subfield of political psychology has become a firmly footed part of political science. Political psychologists have contributed significantly to our understanding of political elites, dissecting their personalities, their political stances, policy choices, crisis behaviour, and the connections between their private and public lives. They have also provided new insights into the sources of the political behavior of ordinary citizens, in countless studies of mass political beliefs, attitudes, socialisation and participation, as well as into political conflict and cooperation within

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Leadership succession in politics and business: Converging logics? Building them up, cutting them down

by paul t hart and Fredrik Bynander

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Papers by paul t hart

From ‘market correction’ to ‘global catastrophe’: framing the economic downturn

Framing the Global Economic Downturn: Crisis rhetoric and the politics of recessions

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From Oblivion to Limelight: Stability and Change in Dutch Post-Prime Ministerial Careers

Even though the Prime Minister (PM) has been the primus inter pares within Dutch government for a... more Even though the Prime Minister (PM) has been the primus inter pares within Dutch government for a long time, the holders of the office were not supposed to flex their muscles. The role of chairman of the council of ministers was, historically, rotated among the members of the Cabinet. So Dutch PMs traditionally had only informal sources of influence. They first and foremost had to be good diplomats and effective back-room operators to keep their fractious multiparty coalition cabinets together. And they had to do so with relatively few formal powers.

Six ingredients of successful public policy

Understanding political leadership: the leadership capital approach

This introductory chapter sets out the conceptual and methodological rationale for the book. The ... more This introductory chapter sets out the conceptual and methodological rationale for the book. The chapter reviews the field and places this new approach within the context of current leadership research. The Leadership Capital Index (LCI) builds on advances in understanding of how to track and assess political leadership. It offers the concept of “leadership capital,” as an aggregate of authority that reaches across the traditional divide between structure and agency through a flexible analytical tool. The LCI offers a comprehensive yet parsimonious and easily applicable ten-point matrix to examine leadership authority over time and in different political contexts. The chapter sets out how this tool is utilized in the examination of the eleven-country case studies to better understand and explain the “puzzles” of contemporary political leadership.

Guardians of Public Value: How Public Organizations Become and Remain Institutions

Guardians of Public Value, 2020

It’s an institution—a phrase we have all come across or may have used. We intuitively understand ... more It’s an institution—a phrase we have all come across or may have used. We intuitively understand what it means. There is something special, perhaps mythical, about them. We value these institutions. We may even find it hard to imagine a life without some of these institutions. In this chapter, we offer a definition of institutions and introduce our theoretical framework (based on the work of Philip Selznick). We introduce the case studies in this book and identify patterns of institution building.

format_quoteSome public organizations thrive despite challenges, adapting while preserving their institutional identity and meeting new demands.format_quote

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Democratic Innovations in Dutch Local Government : Experimentation in Search of Strategy

Many attempts to innovate local democracy focus on enhancing dialogue and fostering collaboration... more Many attempts to innovate local democracy focus on enhancing dialogue and fostering collaboration between citizens, local politicians and local public servants. Their architects claim, as do many academics, that these innovations have positive effects on the quality of democratic governance. But what do they actually value when they do so? We distinguish three theoretical perspectives on the contribution of local democracy innovations: (1) a problem solving perspective: democratic innovation as a precondition for more effective public policy design and delivery; (2) a democratic quality perspective: democratic innovation as a contribution to embedding process values such as inclusion, participation and empowerment into local political processes; (3) an institutional capacity perspective: democratic innovation as a means to improve the capacity of the local government organization to connect with and process the needs, aspirations and concerns of local citizens of different stripes. ...

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‘So What? The prospects and pitfalls of being there’

It does not take much to appear unconventional and odd. Compared with the established toolkit of ... more It does not take much to appear unconventional and odd. Compared with the established toolkit of political science, ethnography is unconventional and odd (see for example such standard texts as Burnham et al., 2004). It is the preserve of anthropology, organisation theory and sociology, not political science. As Fenno (1990: 128) comments, ‘not enough political scientists are presently engaged in observation’. We know that for colleagues in disciplines such as anthropology and sociology and for those who work in such interdisciplinary fields as organisation studies, police studies and leadership studies, observation is a common research method. We recognise there are exceptions in political science. But we insist that generally, in political science, being there, especially observation, remains conspicuous mainly by its absence. This book set out to show the manifold uses of the ethnographic toolkit for research in political science.

From gun control to HIV : six ingredients of successful public policy

CERN: Guardian of the Human Aspiration to Understand the Universe

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is the world’s most formidable centre for p... more The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is the world’s most formidable centre for particle physics. Its mission is radically ambitious: uncovering what the universe is made of and how it works. It advances that mission by providing particle accelerator facilities that enable world-class research in fundamental physics, bringing together scientists from all over the world to push the frontiers of science and technology. It has become widely recognized as one of the most successful cross-national collaborative research organizations of all times. Smart institutional design, good governance, resourceful leadership and resilient collaboration have underpinned the strong sense of interdependence, entrenched norms of mutual respect, trust, empathy and consensual decision-making that have allowed it to thrive.

format_quoteCERN's greatest achievement is discovering the Higgs boson, confirming its role in the Standard Model of Physics, describing fundamental forces excluding gravitation.format_quote

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Rising to Ostrom’s challenge: an invitation to walk on the bright side of public governance and public service

Policy Design and Practice

In this programmatic essay, we argue that public governance scholarship would benefit from develo... more In this programmatic essay, we argue that public governance scholarship would benefit from developing a self-conscious and cohesive strand of "positive" scholarship, akin to social science subfields like positive psychology, positive organizational studies, and positive evaluation. We call for a program of research devoted to uncovering the factors and mechanisms that enable high performing public policies and public service delivery mechanisms; procedurally and distributively fair processes of tackling societal conflicts; and robust and resilient ways of coping with threats and risks. The core question driving positive public administration scholarship should be: Why is it that particular public policies, programs, organizations, networks, or partnerships manage do much better than others to produce widely valued societal outcomes, and how might knowledge of this be used to advance institutional learning from positives? ARTICLE HISTORY

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Understanding Collaboration: Introducing the Collaborative Governance Case Databank

Policy and Society

Studying collaborative governance has become a booming business. However, the empirical literatur... more Studying collaborative governance has become a booming business. However, the empirical literature still struggles to produce robust generalizations and cumulative knowledge that link contextual, situational and institutional design factors to processes and outcomes. We still have not mustered the broad and deep evidence base that will really help us sort fact from fiction and identify more and less productive approaches to collaboration. The current empirical evidence in the study of collaborative governance consists chiefly of small-N case studies or large-N surveys. The challenge is to move from case-based, mid-range theory building to more largeN-driven systematic theory-testing, while also retaining the rich contextual and process insights that only small-N studies tend to yield. This article, and the articles in the accompanying special issue, introduces an attempt to provide this middle groundthe Collaborative Governance Case Database. The database has been developed to serve as a free common pool resource for researchers to systematically collect and compare high-quality collaborative governance case studies. This article is an introduction to the database, exploring its design, opportunities and limitations. This article is also an invitation; inviting all researchers to freely use the cases in the database for their own research interest and to help strengthening the database by adding new cases there are eager to share with colleagues.

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Foreign Economic Crisis, Reformist Leadership, and Policy Change: Lessons from Australia and Sweden

Administrative Theory & Praxis

... Borrowing from the literature on charisma and transformational leadership, this hypothesis ar... more

Inaction and public policy: understanding why policymakers ‘do nothing’

Policy Sciences

In recent decades, the policy sciences have struggled to come to terms with the significance of i... more In recent decades, the policy sciences have struggled to come to terms with the significance of inaction in public policy. Inaction refers to instances when policymakers ‘do nothing’ about societal issues. This article aims to put the study of inaction on a new footing. It presents a five-part typology of forms of inaction before focusing on detail on core drivers of inaction found at four policy-making loci: individuals (coping behaviour), public organisations (information pathologies), governments (agenda control and protection) and networks (non-coordination and lack of feasibility). Acknowledging the conceptual and methodological challenges of researching inaction, it concludes by identifying strategies for putting ‘doing nothing’ (back) on the research agenda of the policy sciences.

format_quotePresents a typology and definition of policy inaction, emphasizing its relevance in public policy analysis.format_quote

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Wanneer worden gemeenten gezien als waardevol?

Bestuurskunde

Dit artikel verkent hoe we met behulp van het publieke waardeperspectief zicht kunnen krijgen op ... more Dit artikel verkent hoe we met behulp van het publieke waardeperspectief zicht kunnen krijgen op de kwaliteit van lokaal bestuur. Het publieke waardeperspectief beoordeelt de overheid niet op basis van algemene standaarden of benchmarks, maar via de oordelen van betrokken actoren. Deze benadering doet in potentie meer recht aan de unieke, lokale context van elke gemeente. Het publieke waardeperspectief wordt echter gecompliceerd door de veelheid aan verwachtingen die actoren hebben van bestuur en hun doorgaans negatieve vooringenomenheid ten opzichte van de overheid. Op basis van 71 interviews met verschillende actoren in zes gemeenten laten we zien hoe een publieke waardeperspectief op de vraag ‘wordt er hier goed bestuurd?’ uiteenlopende beelden oplevert, zelfs binnen gemeenten die door landelijke experts als succesvol worden gezien. Maar ook laten we zien welke verbindingen bestaan tussen deze beelden en hoe achter zuinige oordelen over het verleden optimistische ambities schuilgaan voor de toekomst.

On studying policy successes in Australia and New Zealand

Successful Public Policy: Lessons from Australia and New Zealand

performance in difficult circumstances and thousands of taken-forgranted everyday forms of effect... more performance in difficult circumstances and thousands of taken-forgranted everyday forms of effective public value creation by and through governments are not deemed newsworthy. They cannot be exploited for political gain by oppositions and critics of incumbent officeholders. Curiously, academic students of public policy have had almost nothing to say about them (cf. Bovens et al. 2001; McConnell 2010; Moore 2013). This is despite vigorous calls to recognise the major and often hidden and unacknowledged contributions of governments to successes claimed by and widely attributed to now revered companies such as Google (Mazzucato 2013). We cannot properly 'see', let alone recognise and explain, variations in government performance when media, political and academic discourses alike are saturated with accounts of their shortcomings and failures but are next to silent on contributions and successes. The dominance of the language of disappointment, incompetence, failure, unintended consequences, alienation, corruption, disenchantment and crisis in public and academic discourse about government, politics and public policy is not inconsequential (Hay 2007). It risks creating self-fulfilling prophecies in the way we look at, talk about, think of, evaluate and emotionally relate to public institutions. The current ascent of 'antisystem' populist politicians speaks volumes, and the message is hardly reassuring. The 'declinist' discourse of the current age has permeated our thinking about government and public policy. It prevents us from seeing, acknowledging and learning from past and present instances of highly effective and highly valued public policymaking.

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Conclusions

Oxford Scholarship Online

This concluding chapter reflects on how the LCI has performed and how it can be developed. Applic... more This concluding chapter reflects on how the LCI has performed and how it can be developed. Application of the LCI is analyzed across different leadership puzzles and contexts and for what this tells us about the authority of political leaders. Some interpretations of capital fluctuation across the chapters are presented. The LCI allows exploration of how skills, relations, and reputations create, build, or erode authority. Questions remain over the weighting of indicators, the balance between hard and soft measurements, and broader questions about how capital is acquired, preserved, and, in rare cases, regained. Leaders in weakly democratic systems may be less prone to “normal” patterns of capital fluctuation. Overall, the LCI does allow students of political leadership to think about the difference between political office-holding and exercising political leadership, and about why and when some leaders are able to make the political weather rather than being swept along by it.

paul t hart

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