About the Book
In an era of low trust in government and a pervasive negativity bias, this volume goes against the grain. It examines the foundations, practices and tools of a distinctly positive strand of public administration (PPA).This book asserts that there is a perennial need for social, evidence-based learning on what to aspire to and what works in public administration. Responding to this need, scholars from five continents present research that has been designed to do just that. Employing an array of frameworks and methods, they present studies of high-performing policies and programs and explore what makes them tick and what might be learned from how they were designed and delivered. Taken together, the 27 contributions make a powerful case for the added value of PPA as an intellectual and practical endeavour.
Laying out a future agenda for the field, this book is invaluable for students and scholars of public administration and management, public policy, regulation and governance. Theoretically grounded and conceptually innovative, it is also beneficial to policymakers seeking evidence for their belief that when done well, government does make an immensely positive contribution to society.
Table of Contents:
Contents
1 An optimistic state? Pathways to positive public administration 1
Patrick Lucas, Tina Nabatchi, Janine O’Flynn and Paul ʼt Hart
PART I FOUNDATIONS
2 Positive public administration’s long history 23
Grant Duncan
3 Beyond the binary: understanding success and failure 40
Matthew Flinders
4 A configurational approach to positivity: analyzing
pathways to success and achievement in public administration 58
Fernando Nieto-Morales and Liesbet Heyse
Insight 1 Positivity in public administration: what’s love
got to do with it? 78
Susan Keim
PART II PRACTICES
Insight 2 Reducing administrative burdens: the case of
the US student loan forgiveness website 83
Pamela Herd and Donald Moynihan
5 Burkina Faso’s surprisingly successful effort to abandon
female genital mutilation and cutting 88
Susan L. Ostermann and Josephine Wouango
6 Making Indigenous self-government happen in Canada 109
Mason Ducharme, Susanne Thiessen and Evert Lindquist
7 Puerto Rico’s independent community aqueducts: service
delivery in a complex setting 128
Omar Pérez Figueroa and Nicola Ulibarri
8 Positive public administration for sustainable
development: the crucial role of municipalities in driving success 143
Jonas J. Schoenefeld, Friederike Edel, Iris Behr, Birte
Frommer, Michèle Bernhard and Britta Stein
9 What explains the performance of participatory governance? 165
Nicolas W. Jager and Jens Newig
10 Improving the public purse: the Kenya Revenue Authority
as an example of positive public administration in Africa 187
Gedion Onyango
11 Delivering immigration services: a case of positive public
administration in Kenya 205
Eric E. Otenyo
12 Understanding and learning from positive policy
interventions in the context of Latin American public
administration 222
Pablo Sanabria-Pulido and Cristian Pliscoff
13 Pandemic partnerships: politicians, public servants, and
the people of Aotearoa New Zealand 239
Verna Smith, Lesley Middleton, Jocelyn Cranefield and Lina Guo
14 Positive public administration in developing countries
during crises: the case of Covid-19 in Pakistan 257
Usman W. Chohan
15 Bhutan’s pandemic response and vaccination campaign:
lessons on positive public administration 274
Sigay Dem
Insight 3 Disruption, iteration, and policy success:
lessons from six US cases 292
Richard F. Callahan and John Kirlin
PART III TOOLS
16 Transnational approaches to improving public services:
the case of the open government partnership 300
Alex Ingrams, Suzanne J. Piotrowski and Daniel Berliner
17 The Aarhus Model: countering the global wicked problem
of radicalization with local pragmatist collaborations 320
Scott Douglas
Insight 4 Leveraging public–private partnerships for
positive public administration in South Africa 335
Ndangwa Noyoo and Minenhle Matela
18 Power to the stakeholders: how co-production turned
around a green energy blunder in Ontario, Canada 339
Matt Wilder
19 Sensegiving in multicultural contexts: the role of cultural
chameleonizing in the implementation of Mauritius’s light
rail transit system 361
Emamdeen Fohim, Adeelah Kodabux and Amar Kumar Seeam
20 The role of cultural competency in crafting and delivering
public services 379
Cynthia Barboza-Wilkes and Thai V. Le
21 The party politics of policy endurance: parliamentary
settlements in Norway, 1980–2021 400
Jostein Askim, Bjørn Mo Forum and Bent Sofus Tranøy
22 From brown to green: repurposing public procurement 424
Ana-Maria Dimand and Milena I. Neshkova
23 All together now: sustainable solid waste management
through interlocal collaboration in Mexico 441
Alejandra Medina and José Sánchez
Index 462
About the Author :
Edited by Patrick Lucas, PhD candidate, School of Business, University of New South Wales Canberra, Australia, Tina Nabatchi, Joseph A. Strasser Endowed Professor in Public Administration and Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, US, Janine O’Flynn, Professor and Director, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Australia and Paul ’t Hart, Member of the Scientific Council for Government Policy of the Netherlands, and Professor of Public Administration, Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Review :
‘A book about the positive aspects of public administration and its contribution to making societies work couldn’t be more timely.’<.i>
‘This compelling collection takes us for a walk on the “bright side” through its elaboration of the core tenets and intriguing case studies of Positive Public Administration (PPA). Contributors provide a strong rationale for a renewed focus on ‘what works’ in public administration with a clear recognition that a PPA perspective requires both rigorous and critical scholarship and an explicit articulation of “what good looks like”. Addressing the question of why some policies, practices and processes produce improved societal outcomes when others fail, the collection aims to promote an open conversation about PPA, drawing on a variety of ideas, approaches, successes and failures, and to speak directly with professional practice.
The first part of the collection explores the foundations for PPA taking us through historical roots and potential pathways for PPA, while the second provides a rich set of PPA cases situated in a variety of national contexts, including studies of PPA during the COVID-19 pandemic. The third section presents a range of tools and drivers linked to PPA such as multi-sectoral partnerships, co-production, political leadership and local citizen engagement, along with an intriguing discussion of “cultural chameleonizing”. The volume is peppered with a series of illuminating ‘insight’ chapters throughout.
By charting a course for this nascent area of scholarship without shying away from problematic aspects of democracies and public services, this volume provides a refreshing and rigorous perspective on positive public administration. It will have a significant impact on the study and practice of public administration and should provoke and inspire in equal measure.’
‘The popular and academic literature is replete with examples of the failure of government, and the public servants responsible for providing services to the public. This collection of studies is a useful counter to that conventional wisdom. The examples contained here point out that governments can and do deliver the goods, and do so in settings where poor governance is assumed to be endemic.’
