We checked 8 public administration and policy studies journals on Friday, August 29, 2025 using the Crossref API. For the period August 22 to August 28, we retrieved 19 new paper(s) in 7 journal(s).

Governance

Who Gives Expert Advice? Empirical Evidence From Swedish Policy‐Making
Rebecca Eriksson
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Experts play a central role in national and international policy‐making. Despite their expanding influence, there is little systematic information about who gives expert advice and their demographic composition. This study contributes to addressing this empirical gap by applying a benchmark‐based approach developed for studying political representation to examine the descriptive representation of experts formally involved in Swedish policy processes. Using detailed administrative data on the entire adult population in Sweden (including information on their parentage), I identify academic experts appointed to governmental policy investigations and compare their demographic composition to multiple reference groups. The findings show that academic experts are demographically unrepresentative not only of the general population, but also of parliamentarians, government ministry staff, and the already socially homogeneous academic community from which they are appointed. Regression analyses with fixed effects show that the underrepresentation of academics with working‐class backgrounds and first‐generation immigrants is not explained by differences in year, age group, fields or university affiliations. In contrast, these structural factors do account for the observed gender disparities, suggesting a different mechanism of exclusion for women.
Coping With Political‐Ideological Pressure: How Street‐Level Bureaucrats Shield Policy Implementation From Politicization
Laurin Friedrich
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While pursuing a professional delivery of public services, street‐level bureaucrats increasingly face intense political‐ideological pressure. Yet, preceding scholars have barely explored how they manage to resist it. Addressing this gap, the paper presents a concept of the coping mechanisms street‐level bureaucrats employ to shield their discretionary practices from becoming politicized. It is derived from an exploratory interview study with 33 case managers at German local jobcentres. Drawing on an abductive conceptualization, it identifies four distinct mechanisms which may serve either the function of moving against ideological demands ( professional superiority , disenchanting ) or of moving away from them ( externalizing responsibility , segmentation ). The paper offers novel insights into street‐level bureaucrats' professional position and its relationship with political ideologies. It thereby contributes to a better understanding of how street‐level bureaucracies preserve a competent execution of state acting in times when ideological conflict lines have become highly polarized.

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

Top Managers’ Language Dissimilarity and Public Organizational Performance
Hanchen Jiang, Chuping Zhang, Jingyu Zhang
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Top managers hold a significant position in the functioning of public organizations. While existing studies have predominantly investigated impacts of individual characteristics of top managers on public organizational outcomes, limited attention has been given to heterogeneity, especially non-demographic heterogeneity, among them. This study focuses on the impact of language dissimilarity among top managers in public organizations and proposes that the dissimilarity can negatively influence their communication and social identification, leading to a decrease in organizational performance. Based on economic growth and managers’ biographical data across cities in China (N=4700), our two-way fixed effects model finds that the language dissimilarity between the two top managers in a city government has a negative impact on the economic growth rate of the city. This impact does not diminish as the two managers work together over a long period, and the ethnic dissimilarity between them can amplify the negative impact. Our findings highlight the pivotal role of top management team’s heterogeneity in driving the performance of public organizations.
Tax Salience and Citizen Evaluation of Government
David J Schwegman, Yusun Kim
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This paper examines how tax salience—or how aware individuals are of their property tax payments that finance local public services—correlates with citizens’ evaluation of their local government. Drawing on theories of expectation formation for public services and fiscal illusion, we hypothesize that reduced tax salience is associated with lower normative expectations, which will correlate with increased reported satisfaction with their local government and a higher willingness to support additional taxation. Using data from a nationwide survey of homeowners (n = 10,066), we provide evidence of robust correlations between lower tax salience and more positive citizen evaluation of government. This paper contributes to a growing literature in public administration that finds that the design of tax systems, tax complexity, and other factors outside of the control of street-level bureaucrats that provide public services can influence how individuals evaluate a government or public service.

Journal of Public Policy

The electoral connection, state attorneys general, and the dynamics of incarceration rates
Jason S. Byers, Laine P. Shay
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In the USA states, there is substantial institutional variation among executive branch administrative officials, with state executive branch offices varying by their selection method. Prior scholarship has devoted little attention to the policy implications of this institutional variation. In this article, we explore the consequences of this administrative characteristic by examining state attorneys general. We develop the theoretical rationale that during periods of high crime, for states with an elected attorney general, there should be an increase in the state’s incarceration rate. Conversely, for states with appointed attorneys general, increases in crime will have little effect on the state’s incarceration rate. When analyzing the incarceration rates among all USA states across a seventeen-year period, we find some evidence to support our theoretical expectation. These results highlight the implications that executive branch design has on public policy and governance in several ways.

Public Administration

A Replication of “Explaining Why the Computer Says No: Algorithmic Transparency Affects the Perceived Trustworthiness of Automated Decision‐Making”
Xuemei Fang, Huayu Zhou, Song Chen
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With the advancement of artificial intelligence, algorithms are transforming the operations of the public sector. However, lack of algorithm transparency may result in issues such as algorithmic bias and accountability challenges, ultimately undermining public trust. Based on the principles of replication experiments and procedural justice theory, this study conducted a replication of Grimmelikhuijsen in a Chinese context. The replication reaffirmed Grimmelikhuijsen's core findings that algorithmic explainability enhances public trust, thus demonstrating its potential to foster trust across cultural contexts. Unlike the original research, the results indicated that accessibility remains important for fostering trust. The impact of transparency varies across decision contexts, with greater effects in high‐discretion situations. By replicating Grimmelikhuijsen, the current research not only provides new empirical support for procedural justice theory, but it also offers practical insights into configuring algorithmic transparency within a public administration context.
Experiences of Administrative Burden in Context: Exploring Differences Across Countries, Policy Domains, and Socio‐Demography
Martin Baekgaard, Lucie Martin, Niels BjĂžrn Petersen
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Administrative burden research finds that citizens frequently experience burdens when interacting with government. However, evidence is based predominantly on studies of Western countries and social policies. We collect survey data ( N ≈10,000) in the USA , UK , Mexico, South Korea, and Denmark, using nationally representative samples sourced via online survey panels, to explore similarities and differences in experiences of administrative burden across countries and policy domains. Participants in the USA and Mexico report spending considerably more time interacting with government than participants in our three other case countries. Surprisingly, we find that our respondents associate administrative tasks with more positive than negative affect. This is particularly the case for health and care‐related tasks. Overall, the findings suggest that burden experiences vary considerably across contexts, but that policy domains and socio‐demography are of similar importance to burden experiences across countries. This calls for further theorizing of how context matters to experiences of administrative burden.
The Social Origins and Education of the British Civil Service Elite , 1945–2022
Erzsébet Bukodi, John H. Goldthorpe, Inga Steinberg
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We provide a fuller account than previously available of the extent of change in the social backgrounds of the British civil service elite from 1945 onwards. We consider our findings in relation to questions of meritocracy in recruitment to the elite and of the representativeness of the elite of the population at large. We also address the question of whether a “generalist” orientation persists within the service. We show that there have been changes over time in the social class origins, schooling, and university attendance of the elite but not ones of a steady directional kind. As regards field of study at university, there has been only a limited increase in those taking subjects that provide specialized, policy‐relevant knowledge. We conclude with evidence that increasing the numbers with such knowledge would be consistent with producing an elite more representative in its social composition.
What Drives the Centralization or Decentralization of Network Governance? A Configurational Analysis in Different Health and Social Care Networks
Eleonora Gheduzzi, Tie Cui, Maria Picco, Federica Segato, Stephen Osborne
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Many studies have sought to identify the contingency factors of success in various network governance mechanisms. Despite the relevance of their results, the contingency factors that determine the establishment of specific governance forms remain unclear. Through a qualitative comparative analysis of 13 networks of health and social care integration in Milan (Italy), we explore how diverse configurations of contingency factors produce different governance forms. The results highlight three models. The first clarifies the pathways for centralized governance; the second focuses on those resulting in decentralized governance, and the third demonstrates the existence of hybrid pathways that can lead to hybrid outcomes, underlining the importance of including other contingency factors and assessing them periodically over time. These results yield theoretical and practical insights into how various factors may collectively influence the establishment of centralized/decentralized governance.

Public Administration Review

Generic title: Not a research article
Issue Information
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Celebrating 85 Years
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Systematic Review and Metasynthesis: Dissent and Guerrilla Government in Public Administration Research
Collin D. Cox
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This study investigates how dissent and guerrilla government research shape theory and practice in public administration. The research takes a metasynthetic approach to a traditional systematic review by incorporating ethnographic methods to synthesize the state of the dissent and guerrilla government research. The findings suggest that dissent plays a critical role in the public sector, such as promoting transparency and accountability and fostering a learning culture through feedback. However, the situation and the context surrounding rationales for transgressive behaviors matter. The study finds that dissent and disobedience may be useful tools for dealing with organizational failures and dysfunctions, but these methods should only be used when necessary. Practitioners should be aware of the range of consequences that arise from actions relating to dissent and disobedience. Several gaps are identified and demonstrate a clear need to continue research on dissent and transgressive leadership in public administration, leadership, and public policy.
American Society for Public Administration Code of Ethics
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From a Civic‐Tech to a Problem‐Centered Approach to Open Government Data: Implementation of Environmental Justice Dashboards
Federica Fusi, Fengxiu Zhang, Jiaqi Liang
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This research investigates the configurations of openness and policy conditions influencing the implementation of environmental justice (EJ) open government data (OGD) dashboards across U.S. states. EJ dashboards represent a shift from a civic‐tech approach to OGD, which emphasizes the public release of vast amounts of data, to a problem‐centered approach where government agencies release and curate selected data to address a policy‐specific issue. Because of their differences, problem‐centered OGD initiatives require distinct organizational structures and processes to facilitate both data release (openness conditions) and the representation of the problem of interest (policy conditions). Using fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis, this research shows that the implementation of EJ‐OGD dashboards responds to either a supply–demand model or a government‐driven model. Lack of implementation results from low institutionalization of problem solving or complacency toward EJ issues. Overall, EJ‐OGD implementation is supported by an operationalizable problem definition and/or a dedicated administrative structure leading and informing policy‐specific data provision.
Impervious Corruption: President Trump and the Deformation of Democracy
Barry Bozeman
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A new set of political corruption concepts is introduced, impervious corruption foremost among them. Impervious corruption occurs when a corrupt political actor is unchecked by institutional guardians, giving the corrupt individual a sense of invulnerability. The resultant relationship between impervious corruption and deformation of democracy is then explained. The focus turns to President Donald Trump's political corruption and shows how the current United States political ecology has suborned his corrupt behavior. It is suggested that President Trump is an innovator in political corruption, engaging in acts heretofore not evident in the political history of the United States. The concluding section provides a set of prescriptions for addressing corruption and attendant deformation of democracy. These prescriptions do not require direct action from government institutions, reasoning that some official guardian institutions have been systematically diminished by the Trump administration and some political leaders have put partisan loyalty over their Constitutional duties.

Public Management Review

The blame-avoiding effect of sanction-based accountability and its boundary conditions
Jiayuan Li, Manqian Cui, Zhenjie Yang, Jiansong Zheng
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Regulation & Governance

Does Distributive Conflict Explain Variation in Green Stimulus Spending? Evidence From 40 Major Economies During the Global Financial Crisis and the Covid‐19 Recession
Vegard TĂžrstad, Jon Hovi, HĂ„kon SĂŠlen
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The 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the 2020 Covid‐19 pandemic triggered large economic stimulus packages in most countries. While aimed primarily at saving the domestic economy from widespread bankruptcies and mass unemployment, these stimulus packages also offered governments windows of opportunity for pivoting toward decarbonization. Drawing on a new dataset covering 40 of the world's largest economies' stimulus spending during the two crises, this article addresses two questions: (1) Did the allocation toward green investments increase in government stimulus packages from the GFC to the Covid‐19 downturn? (2) What country characteristics are associated with green stimulus spending in each crisis? Grounded in distributive‐conflict theory, we hypothesize that the relative strength of green and fossil stakeholders in the economy is decisive in shaping climate policy outcomes. Consistent with this theory, our empirical analysis reveals (1) a (small) uptick in major economies' net green spending from 2008 to 2020 and (2) that robust green industrial interests strongly predict cross‐country variation in green stimulus spending. In contrast, countries' levels of fossil fuels production did not exert a proportional influence. Notably, our research also uncovers a pattern of path dependency, with countries leading in green stimulus spending during the GFC maintaining this position also through the Covid‐19 pandemic. Overall, this article contributes new insights to the comparative political economy literature on climate change by analyzing how economic recessions affect the energy transition and how economic structures drive cross‐country variation in investment‐based climate policy.
Decarbonization Politics for All: Means‐Tested Social Assistance, Eco‐Social Values, and Public Support for Increased Fossil Fuel Taxes in Europe
Arvid Lindh, Kenneth Nelson
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Many climate change mitigation policies face public opposition, especially when they impose visible costs on households and are perceived as unfairly regressive. This country‐comparative study examines specific social policy instruments that may help build public support for increasing fossil fuel taxes in Europe. Using multilevel modeling with data from the European Social Survey and the Social Policy Indicators database, we find that higher levels of means‐tested social assistance are positively associated with greater public support for fossil fuel taxes. More specifically, means‐tested social assistance appears to promote support by reducing self‐experienced economic hardship and lessening value conflicts among individuals with strong eco‐social values. Policies that raise the minimum income floor in society thus seem crucial for fostering eco‐social synergies and strengthening public support for government‐led climate action and decarbonization efforts.
Regulating Uncertainty: The Importance of Trust and Affect in the Regulation of AI in The Netherlands
Esther Versluis, Aneta Spendzharova, Odile Feltkamp
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The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) introduces significant uncertainty regarding its future applications and potential risks. What is the preferred regulatory approach when confronted with such uncertainty? To cope with uncertainty, people often screen information in a biased way, consistent with their own prior beliefs and predispositions. Heuristics such as trust and affect are likely to influence how new (scientific) information is judged, in turn influencing the preferred regulatory approach. This article explores the complex interplay between trust, affect, and regulatory preferences in the context of AI governance. Drawing on an exploratory survey and interviews with AI regulators and professionals in the Netherlands, the study finds relatively low trust in AI providers and users, alongside a preference for flexible, adaptive regulation that is strictly enforced by the public authorities. By shedding light on the role of trust and affect in the emerging regulation of AI, this article contributes to understanding how such heuristics influence the preferred regulatory approach.
Skill‐Biased Policy Change: Governing the Transition to the Knowledge Economy in Germany, Sweden and Britain
Sebastian Diessner, Niccolo Durazzi, Federico Filetti, David Hope, Hanna Kleider, Simone Tonelli
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How have advanced capitalist democracies transitioned from a Fordist to a post‐Fordist, knowledge‐based economy? And why have they followed seemingly similar policy trajectories despite different economic models and sectoral specializations? We develop the notion of skill‐biased policy change to answer these questions. Drawing on a distinction between valence and partisan issues in the transition to the knowledge economy, we highlight the partisan and business group politics underpinning different policy areas to argue that policies that create or mobilize high‐level skills attract relatively broader consensus across political parties and business groups than protective labor market policies targeted at the lower end of the skills distribution. The argument is illustrated through case studies of Germany, Sweden, and the UK—three countries that have transitioned to a knowledge‐based economy but that have done so by relying on markedly different sectoral specializations.