We checked 8 public administration and policy studies journals on Friday, March 21, 2025 using the Crossref API. For the period March 14 to March 20, we retrieved 11 new paper(s) in 5 journal(s).

Governance

Motivated to Be Policy Entrepreneurs: The Changing Political Climate and Expert Involvement in China's Policy Process
Zhipeng Ye, Zelin Xue
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Expert involvement in China's policy process has grown significantly since 2012, while the evolving motivations driving experts to act as policy entrepreneurs have received limited attention in the literature. This article examines how the changing political climate steers the rising involvement of experts in China's internal consultative information system. Through qualitative analysis of participatory observation and interviews, we find that the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) political reforms since 2012 have reconstructed the organizational incentive structure of government‐funded research institutes, extrinsically motivating experts to write zhuanbao (䞓抄, internal reports) for consultative services to the Party‐state. Experts seek to enhance their writing skills and innovate strategies due to mixed intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, including financial rewards, career prospects, and professional reputations. This study contributes to the literature on policy entrepreneurship by introducing the concept of “extrinsically motivated policy entrepreneurship” and highlighting the role of top‐down political pressure in shaping policy entrepreneur emergence in non‐Western contexts.
Top‐Down Central Inspection and Subnational Discretion in Policymaking
Shiyang Xiao, Yilin Hou, Mary Lovely
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Effective governance requires maintaining a balance between central political control and subnational discretion. However, empirical evidence remains limited and thin on how different central control instruments may affect the level of subnational discretion. In this study, we argue that top‐down inspection, as an instrument of central political control, may disrupt subnational discretion in policymaking, that is, subnational discretion repeatedly declines and then rebounds toward its initial or normal level. This phenomenon is most likely to occur when top‐down inspection is combined with an under‐institutionalized accountability system. We test this proposition by examining the effect of central disciplinary inspections on the patterns of provincial industrial policymaking in China. Using a novel dataset of 612 central‐level and 1907 provincial‐level industrial policies adopted between 2001 and 2019, we find that provincial discretion in industrial policymaking decreases significantly during the “early‐warning phase” and the “closing phase” of inspection, and rebounds toward its original level during the “dormant phase” of inspection. Further analysis suggests that informal ties between central and provincial political leaders have a moderating effect on the disruption from inspection.
Subnational Lobbying on National Policymaking: Evidence From Germany
Florian Spohr, Patrick Bernhagen, Krispin KrĂŒger
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While research on subnational lobbying has advanced considerably in recent years, much less is known about the role of lower levels in the context of multilevel lobbying. In a multilevel system, interest groups can pursue different routes for influence‐seeking. These include a domestic subnational route to seek amendments on a bill by lobbying regional governments, and a subnational‐Brussels route , based on regions' influence on EU policymaking. Investigating the case of Germany, we analyze observational and survey data on interest groups and their route choices in the context of 23 legislative proposals that were drafted in the year 2019. Our findings highlight the importance of subnational lobbying for national policymaking. It is neither an exclusive strategy of outsiders on the national level, nor one pursued exclusively by local and regional actors. Furthermore, subnational lobbying is more likely when interest groups and subnational governments share common goals.

Journal of European Public Policy

Democratic accountability regimes, populism, and transparency in the European Parliament
Nuria Font, Cristina Ares
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Public Administration Review

Explaining the Use of Influence Tactics to Achieve Intraorganizational Collective Action Around Local Sustainability
Christopher V. Hawkins, Rachel M. Krause, Angela Y. S. Park
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This research examines how actors responsible for leading organization‐wide efforts use “influence tactics” in pursuit of intraorganizational, or functional, collective action. We draw from intraorganizational influence theory and propose a revised taxonomy of tactics that vary along two dimensions: coerciveness (soft and hard) and orientation (relational and rational). We test factors associated with their use in the context of municipal sustainability, an objective that requires input from multiple distinct units for which it is not a core mission. Analysis of a sample of over 500 United States cities shows that the hard–rational approach of citing formally adopted ordinances or plans in an attempt to compel participation was the most frequently used tactic. The results of a multivariate probit regression further suggest that features of city governments' organizational structure and the support received from elected officials are associated with the use of different influence tactics to achieve collective action around sustainability initiatives.
Untangling the Relationship Between Red Tape and Job Satisfaction: The Role of Self‐Efficacy and High‐Individualistic Culture
Qianhui Li, Bert George
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Although red tape remains a significant policy concern and despite meta‐analytical research showing that it impacts employee and performance outcomes, research elucidating why and under which conditions it does so remains scarce. Using social cognitive theory, we first hypothesize that the relationship between red tape and job satisfaction is mediated by self‐efficacy. Second, we argue that red tape is particularly harmful for job satisfaction in high‐individualistic cultures. Using a survey dataset of 110,746 teachers across 45 countries, we find that self‐efficacy is a statistically significant mediator in the red tape—job satisfaction relationship, explaining about 8% of the relationship. Self‐efficacy does not offer a particularly potent mechanism explaining the red tape—job satisfaction relationship, though it does matter. Importantly, we also corroborate assumptions about the role of culture in red tape and public administration research, by finding that red tape is much more harmful for job satisfaction in high‐individualistic cultures.
Non‐Profit Governance: Twelve Frameworks for Organisations and ResearchBy GuillaumePlaisance and Anne GoujonBelghit, Routledge, 2025. 242 pp. £108 (hard cover). ISBN : 978‐1‐03‐259986‐1
Fuminobu Mizutani
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Public Management Review

Why officials are held strictly accountable: a qualitative comparative analysis of emergencies in China
Fujun Zhou, Cheng Fu, Chunyan Hu
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The impact of telework on public service motivation: exploring the role of authentic leadership in pre- and post-pandemic contexts
SeungUk Hur
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Regulation & Governance

Impact Assessment as Agenda‐Setting: Procedural Politicking and the Mobilization of Bias in the European Union's Audiovisual Media Services Directive
Eleanor Brooks, Kathrin Lauber
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Though often framed as a technocratic tool, impact assessment is a core element of the political agenda‐setting process. In this article, we show that decisions about what is subject to legislative debate are made during impact assessment; specifically, during the drafting of the assessment report. Using a social process tracing methodology, we analyze the removal from the agenda of provisions for stronger alcohol advertising rules during the revision of the EU's Audiovisual Media Services Directive. We identify and test three possible explanations for this non‐decision, drawing on material not previously in the public domain, and exploring how procedural politicking in the context of the EU's Better Regulation agenda shapes the drafting process. Concluding that the non‐decision on alcohol advertising regulation was most likely prompted by combined political pressure from within and outwith the Commission, we argue for greater attention to impact assessment as a tool for mobilizing bias and agenda‐setting.
Well‐Being Economy in the Visegrad Countries: Lessons for Degrowth‐Oriented Industrial Policy
Oliver Kovacs, Endre Domonkos
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This paper proposes a transdisciplinary approach to design future degrowth‐oriented industrial policies in pursuing a well‐being economy in the case of a specific growth model. Specifically, we show that the case of the Visegrad countries (Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, V4s) is a clarion call for the degrowth literature to be much more modest and self‐critical. It addresses the puzzling question of whether the future degrowth policies of the V4s are influenced by their unique industrialization path, which has historically relied on foreign capital. It proposes a transdisciplinary framework (based on political economy and ecological economics) to root degrowth‐compatible industrial policies for the degrowth transition. It then analyzes the V4s' capital‐dependent growth models historically to improve degrowth‐oriented industrial policy research. It concludes with implications for future study on degrowth‐oriented industrial policy, based on V4s' experience anticipated to remain in a wayward FDI‐dependent mode, to make the well‐being economy‐seeking endeavor more scientifically sound.