We checked 8 public administration and policy studies journals on Friday, November 21, 2025 using the Crossref API. For the period November 14 to November 20, we retrieved 19 new paper(s) in 7 journal(s).

Governance

Regulatory Means for Interventionist Ends: GBER and the Transformation of the EU State Aid Regime
Fabio Bulfone, Donato Di Carlo, Timo Seidl
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Despite its new‐found penchant for market interventionism, the European Union (EU) is often portrayed as lacking the fiscal and administrative capacity to conduct industrial policy. The EU can regulate markets, the conventional wisdom goes, but not steer them in specific directions. In this article, we challenge the notion that regulation and industrial policy are inherently antithetical, arguing instead that the Commission uses its regulatory authority over state aid to indirectly steer member states' industrial policies. We theorize and empirically investigate this rules‐as‐tools approach to industrial policy through an in‐depth, multi‐method case study on the transformation of the EU's state aid regime, with a focus on the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER). Combining original interviews, topic modeling, document analysis, and descriptive statistics, we demonstrate that the Commission has long used state aid regulation not only to restrict but also redirect state aid. Increasingly, it employs these rules to encourage selective interventions in the economy—particularly those supporting the twin transitions of digitalization and decarbonization.
Between Law and Politics—The Emergence of an EU Industrial Policy
Paul Dermine, Maria Patrin
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How do law and politics interact in shaping the relationship between the state and markets? To what extent can the law break free from the political and ideological beliefs which brought it about, and be repurposed to adjust to evolving assumptions and a new political‐economic Zeitgeist ? This paper explores how the dynamics between law and politics play out in the context of the European Union as a multi‐level polity, where economic powers and prerogatives are distributed across different levels of government and where the central government enjoys limited, conferred powers. Drawing on the “Integration through Law” literature and institutional change theories, the paper investigates the evolution of EU industrial policy and its legal architecture. It lays out the legal rules and conditions under which industrial policy has traditionally operated in the EU. It further discusses how this framework is shifting following changing economic and political priorities that favor more activist forms of economic and industrial policy. The paper argues that the law can both act as a constraining, limiting factor, or as an enabler of EU industrial policy initiatives. On the one hand primary law principles and competences fundamentally inhibit the pursuit of activist industrial policies in Europe. On the other hand, a number of second‐order resources can be mobilized and “converted” to bring about an EU industrial policy. The paper finally reflects on the risks and challenges of repurposing legal rules for political ends, highlighting issues of consistency, efficiency and legitimacy.
Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Assessing the Democratic Accountability of Europe's New Industrial Policy
Sebastian Diessner, Christy A. Petit
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This article asks “who controls the controllers” now that the European Commission—long responsible for controlling the conduct of industrial policy in the EU's internal market—increasingly pursues its own industrial policy objectives. We draw on delegation theory to establish why the Commission should be held accountable for its industrial policy‐making and, based on a distinction between procedural and substantive accountability, develop a simple typology of accountability outcomes that helps us distinguish between full accountability, partial accountability, and unaccountability in the realm of industrial policy. To assess empirically whether and how the Commission has been held accountable in its pursuit of industrial policy, we leverage a new dataset that tracks Commission follow‐ups—both in writing and in terms of policy actions—to 432 points raised in own‐initiative reports by the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy between 2019 and 2024. Our analysis suggests that the Commission has been far more responsive in “words” than in “actions”, which carries implications for our understanding of executive‐legislative relations and democratic accountability not only in industrial policy but also in other EU policy domains.
Award Citation: The Charles H. Levine Memorial Book Prize, 2025
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Journal of European Public Policy

Bargaining hard or hardly bargaining? Brexit and the populist renegotiation of international agreements
Benjamin Martill
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Caught in the inclusion trap: multistakeholder institutions and autocratic accommodation
Benjamin Daßler, Nadia El Ghali
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Correction
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Commendable climate action or protectionist overreach? Contesting the EU’s trade-related climate policies at the WTO
Alexandra Bögner
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Rebalancing the European s authority by fiscal integration: the commission’s changed role in multilevel governance
Eva G. Heidbreder
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Converging on social investment? Policy entrepreneurship, learning and the social dimension of post-pandemic EU economic governance
Sven Schreurs
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Migration mood and policy responsiveness: a structural analysis of public opinion, policy, and migration flows in Italy (1990–2020)
Marcello Carammia, Stefano M. Iacus
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Journal of Public Policy

Selective decentralization under the trend of centralization: reforms in China’s governmental power of environmental governance from 1973 to 2023
Mengzhi Xu, Huachun Wang, Shixin Luan
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The rational allocation of authority across government levels is crucial for the effective provision of environmental public goods. Based on China’s environmental policy texts (1973–2023) and case studies, this paper analyzes the division and adjustment of environmental governance powers. The findings reveal selective decentralization under the trend of centralization over the past fifty years in China’s environmental governance: (1) Legislative power has been conditionally devolved, to encourage distinctive local environmental legislation that is non-contradictory to central legislation; (2) Administrative power has transitioned from an ambiguous two-tier system to a three-category framework with attempts to quantify shared authorities. This recentralization aligns with the principle that national public goods are provided by the central government, while regional ones are supplied jointly; (3) Supervisory power has transitioned from local to vertical management, and its oversight has been elevated to a national initiative, receiving strong political endorsement.
Inheritance, wealth transfers, and the case for a capital accessions tax
Eric Fabri
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Why and how should we tax inheritances, gifts, and bequests? This article examines the political theory debate on inheritance taxation and identifies four main arguments and three objections in favor of and against it. It reviews the most common forms of inheritance taxation in OECD countries and proposes an alternative: a lifetime capital accessions tax. This alternative is broadly delineated to compare it with the “average inheritance tax” and assess which of these two options better meets the requirements of the arguments and objections previously stated. The analysis shows that the capital accessions tax is normatively superior to the average inheritance tax. It better satisfies the reasons we have for taxing intergenerational wealth transfers and offers strong replies to three classical objections to inheritance taxation. Discussing the details of the accessions tax allows us to show how it can respond to popular objections to inheritance taxation and gain popular support.

Public Administration

Understanding the Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Local Government Decision‐Making: The Influence of Institutional Pressures and Managerial Perceptions
A. Paula Rodriguez MĂŒller, Luca Tangi, Amandine Lerusse
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Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly being integrated into public sector decision‐making processes, with public managers relying on them to enhance their capabilities. As AI adoption becomes more widespread, discussions about its advantages and drawbacks intensify, alongside growing external expectations and pressures. However, the extent to which these pressures influence AI adoption remains unclear. Drawing on institutional theory, we conducted a randomised between‐subjects survey among 497 public managers in Belgian municipalities to examine how coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures influence their willingness to adopt AI in decision‐making. Results indicate that all three types of institutional pressures increase public managers' willingness to adopt AI, albeit to varying degrees. Moreover, the effects of coercive and normative pressures diminish when managers have more positive perceptions of AI. By linking institutional theory with individual‐level observations, the study contributes to understanding how institutional contexts shape AI adoption and the broader digital transformation of public administration.

Public Administration Review

Public Sector Innovation. By M.A.Demircioglu and D. B.Audretsch, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2024. 262 pp. $29.99 (paperback). ISBN: 978‐1‐00‐927924‐6
Ali Asker Guenduez
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Public Management Review

Legitimacy building in crisis: how citizen-led mutual aid self-organizations emerged and survived during Shanghai’s COVID-19 Outbreak
Wu Chen, Haibo Zhang
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Unpacking the microfoundations of educational innovation and change: a multi-level study of ambidexterity, commitment, and trust using Coleman’s bathtub model
Marcus Pietsch, Hilal Buyukgoze, Sedat GĂŒmĂŒĆŸ, ÖmĂŒr Çoban, Nedim Özdemir
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Reputation signals, individual characteristics and citizens’ coproduction willingness
Rui Mu, Sicheng Chen, Tom Christensen
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Regulation & Governance

The Formation of Stakeholders' Trust in Regulatory Agencies: The Relationship Between Contact Frequency, Media Coverage, and Stakeholder Trust in Regulatory Agencies
Jana GĂłmez DĂ­az, Anna Pikos, Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen, Edoardo Guaschino
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This article investigates the formation of stakeholders' trust in regulatory agencies, as the extent to which contact frequency and sentiment of media coverage are related to different types of stakeholders' trust. Based upon original survey data from diverse stakeholders, and media coverage from 2015 to 2020 of agencies in the food safety, financial regulation, and data protection sectors across seven countries, the analysis suggests that media coverage rather than contact frequency is important for stakeholders' formation of trust. Negative media coverage is detrimental to stakeholders' trust; positive or neutral coverage is conducive to stakeholders' trust. Finally, the results indicate that contact frequency does not seem to strengthen or weaken the importance of media coverage for stakeholders' trust in regulatory agencies significantly. This suggests the relative importance of media coverage compared to direct contact and experience with regulatory agencies when understanding determinants of stakeholders' trust formation. Beyond contributing to the research on regulatory governance, this study offers valuable insights for regulatory agencies in terms of navigating and leveraging the media.