The Disconnection of Advocacy and Analysis in Public Administration: A Critique of Robust Governance

2026/06/21 by Gerry Stoker, Brenton Prosser, B. Guy Peters · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Public Policy and Administration Research #Policy Transfer and Learning #Foucault, Power, and Ethics

paper · doi:10.1111/padm.70074

openalex publication_date 2026/06/21 · openalex created_date 2026/06/22 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/23

Abstract

ABSTRACT A strength of public administration as a discipline is that it is concerned with both the analysis and advocacy. It explores the working of public institutions and wider systems of governance but also proposes reform mechanisms to improve their functioning. But these combined tasks are often conducted as if they were in separate worlds, to the detriment of the advocacy role. This failing, in turn, leads the advocacy arm of public administration regularly down a path of misunderstanding the nature of reform, over‐estimating the prospects for institutional change and not grasping the role of politics in any change. We use the case of the recent promotion of “robust governance” to illustrate our argument.

Citations

• A PUBLIC MANAGEMENT FOR ALL SEASONS?
• Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda
• Populism: A Very Short Introduction
• Polarization and the Global Crisis of Democracy: Common Patterns, Dynamics, and Pernicious Consequences for Democratic Polities
• The state of British policymaking: How can UK government become more effective?

Discussions

• "The Disconnection of Advocacy and Analysis in Public Administration: A Critique of Robust Governance" by @profstoker.bsky.social, Brenton Prosser, and B. Guy Peters finds that robust governance may u [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]