Recent events and media reporting have turned the spotlights on the role and behaviour of senior civil servants and their relationships with political office holders. In this article I ask how political-administrative interactions are perceived and enacted in the current Dutch core executive. I answer this research question by providing eight concise observations based on extensive qualitative fieldwork (300 hours) and dozens of interviews among top public servants and political executives. The observations fall into two heuristic categories: Institutional context and role and behaviour. Together, they provide an impressionistic picture how work of government elites takes shape, situated in the institutional context. These findings are particularly important as increasing media pressure and enhanced ‘publicness’ of public servants call for a stocktake of political-administrative relations and administrative behaviour. The findings have implications for both students and practitioners of public administration. |
Zoekresultaat: 71 artikelen
Lokaal internationaal |
Internationale tijdschriften en boeken |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurs­wetenschappen, Aflevering 4 2021 |
Auteurs | Rik Reussing |
Auteursinformatie |
Vrij artikel |
Een vak apart: topambtelijk vakmanschap in tijden van politieke volatiliteit |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 4 2021 |
Trefwoorden | political-administrative relations, senior civil servants, craft of administration, public leadership, publicness |
Auteurs | Erik-Jan van Dorp |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Thema-artikel |
From National Lockdowns to Herd Immunity: Understanding the Spectrum of Government Responses to COVID-19 (2019-2021) |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 3 2021 |
Trefwoorden | COVID-19, Health Policy, Policy Strategies, Policy Capacity, Leadership |
Auteurs | Michael Howlett |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Governments around the world responded at roughly the same time but in several different ways to the emerging threat of COVID-19 in early 2020. This article sets out the nature of the different strategies that emerged over the course of the pandemic, focussing on the policy tools deployed. Some of these efforts were successful in containing the coronavirus while others were not, in some cases due to poor initial choices and in others due to poor implementation of the chosen strategy. Although the initial understanding each government had of the nature of the disease was the same, different state capacities and different levels of preparedness and effective leadership can be seen to have resulted over time in the emergence of six distinct approaches to the pandemic which, once deployed, proved difficult, although not impossible, to change as the pandemic unfolded. |
Article |
|
Tijdschrift | Politics of the Low Countries, Aflevering 3 2021 |
Trefwoorden | parliamentary committees, legislative organisation |
Auteurs | Tim Mickler |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In this article I analyse whether differences in formal committee structures affect how parliamentary actors organise their work within them. I compare the allocation of members to specialised committees in the Dutch House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) and the Belgian Chamber of Representatives (Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers/Chambre des Représentants) to test whether committee assignments are given more serious consideration when committees are strong. Despite many similarities, both parliaments differ in their internal institutional arrangements: committees in the Chamber of Representatives are, at least formally, considerably more powerful than those in the Dutch Lower House. The article uses the congressional theories of legislative organisation as heuristic devices to deduce several rationales of the assignment process. The role of parliamentary party groups is highlighted. The results indicate the presence of stable, reoccurring patterns in both parliaments. Even in the House of Representatives, where committees present lower opportunity structures, assignments are given due consideration. |
Article |
Interest Representation in BelgiumMapping the Size and Diversity of an Interest Group Population in a Multi-layered Neo-corporatist Polity |
Tijdschrift | Politics of the Low Countries, Aflevering 1 2021 |
Trefwoorden | interest groups, advocacy, access, advisory councils, media attention |
Auteurs | Evelien Willems, Jan Beyers en Frederik Heylen |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
This article assesses the size and diversity of Belgium’s interest group population by triangulating four data sources. Combining various sources allows us to describe which societal interests get mobilised, which interest organisations become politically active and who gains access to the policy process and obtains news media attention. Unique about the project is the systematic data collection, enabling us to compare interest representation at the national, Flemish and Francophone-Walloon government levels. We find that: (1) the national government level remains an important venue for interest groups, despite the continuous transfer of competences to the subnational and European levels, (2) neo-corporatist mobilisation patterns are a persistent feature of interest representation, despite substantial interest group diversity and (3) interest mobilisation substantially varies across government levels and political-administrative arenas. |
Adriaan Koelma fits in with the list of legal scholars who helped to shape the early history of the (local) administrative sciences in the Netherlands, which was dominated by a legal approach to local administration. In that respect, he was not only a follower of the first Dutch public administration scholar, Gerrit van Poelje, but also his successor. He held the chair in Public Administration in Rotterdam, which Van Poelje vacated in 1933, first as a lecturer and later as a professor (from 1946 onwards). Nowadays, Koelma is mainly remembered for the state commission named after him: he (in vain) advocated the introduction of districts (next to municipalities). He was chairman of this state commission that was installed by Minister Beel on 19 December 1946. He fulfilled his scientific activities in addition to a career in the Dutch civil service. Koelma was a typical ‘self-made man’ who worked his way up from junior employee at the municipal clerk’s office of Dordrecht to municipal clerk and, if only briefly, mayor of Alkmaar. His experiences in the Second World War had a great influence on his later life. Due to a war-related illness, he had to give up the chairmanship of the Koelma Commission in 1947 and in 1948 his professorship and role as mayor of Alkmaar. This war also gave him insight into the pernicious influence of Nazi ideology on governance theory and governance practice. He could not have suspected how hard the German occupier would put the Dutch administration and its servants to the test during his public lesson of 1934, because at that time the Nazi regime in Germany had not yet shown its true nature at the local level of government. |
Artikel |
|
Tijdschrift | Beleidsonderzoek Online, januari 2020 |
Auteurs | Ellen Minkman en Astrid Molenveld |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Q-methodologie is een nog relatief onbekende onderzoeksmethode, met veel potentieel voor beleidsonderzoek en -analyse. De benaderingen, doelen en onderzoeksvragen in verschillende toepassingen lopen uiteen, maar vertonen ook duidelijke overeenkomsten. In dit artikel beschrijven we de belangrijkste theoretische en analytische bouwstenen van de methode, en een praktijkgericht 10-stappenplan waarmee men snel zelf aan de slag kan met Q-methodologie. Op basis van een aantal toepassingen van Q-methodologie in Nederland en Vlaanderen laat dit artikel op inzichtelijke wijze zien wat Q-methodologie toevoegt aan de toolbox van beleidsonderzoekers. Naast de theoretische achtergrond van de methode biedt deze bijdrage een praktisch stappenplan voor het gebruik van de methode in de praktijk. |
Thema-artikel |
Leren van de WODC-casusFormele en professionele waarborgen voor onafhankelijk onderzoek vergen onderhoud |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 4 2019 |
Trefwoorden | professional safeguards, policy influence, independence, scientific research |
Auteurs | Dr. Meike Bokhorst |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In the relationship between the Ministry of Justice and Security and the Scientific Research and Documentation Center, safeguards to prevent improper influence of research were lacking. In the opinion of the WODC II investigation committee, civil servants were too close to the substantive execution of the investigation, as a result of which the WODC was given too little room for critical investigation. For other ministries and knowledge institutions the question is relevant as to what safeguards are needed for conducting independent research. Rules and procedures are not sufficient for creating and maintaining responsible research practices. It is also important that employees learn to recognize difficult situations, can discuss these with their colleagues, and know how to deal with dilemmas. Other organizations can learn from the WODC issue that they must maintain and recalibrate the formal and professional safeguards for the independence of scientific research. Trust in science stands or falls with independence and soundness in word and deed. |
Vanuit de VB |
Van Poelje Award 2018 jury report |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 4 2019 |
Article |
Fiscal Consolidation in Federal BelgiumCollective Action Problem and Solutions |
Tijdschrift | Politics of the Low Countries, Aflevering 2 2019 |
Trefwoorden | fiscal consolidation, fiscal policy, federalism, intergovernmental relations, High Council of Finance |
Auteurs | Johanna Schnabel |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Fiscal consolidation confronts federal states with a collective action problem, especially in federations with a tightly coupled fiscal regime such as Belgium. However, the Belgian federation has successfully solved this collective action problem even though it lacks the political institutions that the literature on dynamic federalism has identified as the main mechanisms through which federal states achieve cooperation across levels of government. This article argues that the regionalization of the party system, on the one hand, and the rationalization of the deficit problem by the High Council of Finance, on the other, are crucial to understand how Belgium was able to solve the collective action problem despite its tightly coupled fiscal regime and particularly high levels of deficits and debts. The article thus emphasizes the importance of compromise and consensus in reducing deficits and debts in federal states. |
Article |
|
Tijdschrift | Politics of the Low Countries, Aflevering 2 2019 |
Trefwoorden | radical right-wing populist parties, economic policies, welfare chauvinism, populism, deserving poor |
Auteurs | Simon Otjes |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
This article examines the economic agenda of the Dutch Freedom Party. It finds that this party mixes left-wing and right-wing policy positions. This inconsistency can be understood through the group-based account of Ennser-Jedenastik (2016), which proposes that the welfare state agenda of radical right-wing populist parties can be understood in terms of populism, nativism and authoritarianism. Each of these elements is linked to a particular economic policy: economic nativism, which sees the economic interest of natives and foreigners as opposed; economic populism, which seeks to limit economic privileges for the elite; and economic authoritarianism, which sees the interests of deserving and undeserving poor as opposed. By using these different oppositions, radical right-wing populist parties can reconcile left-wing and right-wing positions. |
Thema-artikel ‘Uitgesproken Bestuurskunde’ |
Europese regelgeving: meer dan de som der delen? |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 2 2019 |
Trefwoorden | European Union, EU legislation, evaluation, implementation, European administrative networks |
Auteurs | Prof. dr. Ellen Mastenbroek |
Samenvatting |
Evaluations of EU legislation can fulfill a key role in the European policy process. They can provide the knowledge base required for political accountability towards the electorate, and form a basis for the improvement of existing legislation. This article introduces a research agenda in the realm of the ex-post evaluation of EU legislation, which comprises two research lines. The first strand comprises research into ex post legislative evaluations conducted by the European Commission. This research is innovative, because EU policy researchers so far have barely touched upon evaluation, as a final and important stage in the EU policy cycle. By assessing evaluation critically, we can ascertain to what extent the EU’s ex-post evaluation system is more than an instrument, aimed at increasing the EU’s legitimacy. The second research strand is own evaluation research, focusing on the role of European administrative networks- intergovernmental structures that have been established to improve the implementation of EU legislation by the member states. By critically evaluating the functioning and effectiveness of these networks, I hope to be able to find out whether and under what conditions these network structures are more, than the sum of their national parts. |
Thema-artikel |
‘Macho-meritocratie’ SingaporeVijf lessen uit het genadeloze streven naar ambtelijke excellentie |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 1 2019 |
Trefwoorden | Singapore, public service excellence, Performance, comparative public administration |
Auteurs | Prof. dr. Zeger van der Wal |
Samenvatting |
Singapore and the Netherlands are small, export- and trade-dependent countries that perform excellently in many areas, such as good governance and integrity, policy effectiveness, liveability, innovation, and e-government. At the same time there are clear differences in political culture and history: Singapore has a more authoritarian governance style including limitations in press freedom, freedom of speech, and political activism. Within these contrasting contexts, both countries have introduced and implemented similar public management reforms since the 1990s. The aim of these reforms is to maintain public service excellence in a dynamic environment but the countries make contrasting choices in achieving this aim. This article describes how administrative excellence is organised and pursued in Singapore and identifies five lessons for the Netherlands: (1) Use positive narratives about government often; (2) be nuanced about capping top-level remuneration; (3) enhance the attractiveness of government as an employer; (4) invest in life-long learning; (5) be an authoritative expert amidst horizontalisation hypes. |
Thema-artikel |
Voortvarend in verbouwenHoe Denemarken efficiënt drastische beleidswijzigingen realiseert (maar niet per se heel effectief blijkt) |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 1 2019 |
Trefwoorden | Comparative public administration, Public reform, Reform implementation, Decentralisation, Civil service |
Auteurs | Eline van Schaik MSc |
Samenvatting |
In international comparative research, a dominant image often emerges of Denmark as a frontrunner in innovative governance, gaining top results in international rankings. |
Thema-artikel |
Bestuur in een low-trust contextDe vicieuze cirkels in de hervorming van de Mexicaanse overheid |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 1 2019 |
Trefwoorden | low trust, vicious circles, administrative reforms, authoritarian legacies, Mexico |
Auteurs | Dr. Rik Peeters |
Samenvatting |
Since the late eighties, Mexico has experienced profound economic modernisation and political democratisation. However, the corresponding administrative reforms have lagged: professionalisation of the public sector, improvement of public service delivery and development of modern management principles are plagued by a lack of coherence, implementation, and continuity. This can be traced back to several historically rooted and structural characteristics of Mexican public administration, which reproduce vicious circles of low trust and dysfunction. For example, (1) the extreme spoils system maintains a culture of distrust towards civil servants; (2) Mexico’s weak state capacity is a consequence of a lack of collective action, but also further undermines citizens’ trust in government; (3) strong labour unions are a response to poor labour rights, but also uphold a system of capture and confrontation; and (4) corruption is inevitable if cooperation depends on personal loyalties. |
Article |
Consensus Democracy and Bureaucracy in the Low Countries |
Tijdschrift | Politics of the Low Countries, Aflevering 1 2019 |
Trefwoorden | consensus democracy, bureaucracy, governance system, Lijphart, policymaking |
Auteurs | Frits van der Meer, Caspar van den Berg, Charlotte van Dijck e.a. |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Taking Lijphart’s work on consensus democracies as our point of departure, we signal a major shortcoming in Lijphart’s focus being almost exclusively on the political hardware of the state structure, leaving little attention for the administrative and bureaucratic characteristics of governance systems. We propose to expand the Lijphart’s model which overviews structural aspects of the executive and the state with seven additional features of the bureaucratic system. We argue that these features are critical for understanding the processes of policymaking and service delivery. Next, in order to better understand the functioning of the Netherlands and Belgium as consensus democracies, we provide a short analysis of the historical context and current characteristics of the political-administrative systems in both countries. |
Artikel |
|
Tijdschrift | Bestuurs­wetenschappen, Aflevering 1 2019 |
Auteurs | Joram Feitsma MSc |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Civil servants at the Dutch authorities increasingly make use of behavioural insights in the policy process. These insights are primarily put on the agenda at the level of the national government in the Netherlands. However, they also seem to be particularly useful at the local level. After all, behaviour-conscious policy focuses on behavioural change through the redesign of the direct environments of citizens, and local authorities have a clear view and control over these environments. In the light of this potential, this article explores the current rise and institutionalization of behavioural expertise in local government. The work practices of local behavioural experts are examined on the basis of three dimensions of local government: positioning, practices and politics. The findings show that local behavioural experts are still in an experimental and start-up phase, but at the same time are already working with a wealth of behavioural assignments. In doing so, they deal tactically with scarce resources, resistance and abrasive institutional logics. The article shows that behavioural insights and designs are also promising in local government, that a local administrative landscape of behavioural expertise is already being developed; and that making meters in the field of behavioural expertise calls for several forms of coordination. |
Artikel |
Voorlopige contouren van bestuursgericht toezichtEmpirische inzichten in jonge praktijken van bestuursgericht toezicht |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 4 2018 |
Trefwoorden | Governance, Regulation, Oversight |
Auteurs | Prof. dr. Thomas Schillemans, Dr. Meike Bokhorst, Dr. Marieke van Genugten e.a. |
Samenvatting |
The regulatory agencies in various public service sectors are said to be changing (some) of their regulatory attention issues of internal governance of organizations in education, health care en social housing. This paper aims to assess how (if, at all) responsible actors within those organizations experience this shift in regulatory focus. We report on the findings from a survey with modest N, distributed at an early stage of this new policy. The paper shows that respondents have fairly divergent views on whether or not this regulatory shift has indeed occurred, something which is not uncommon for a new policy. We distinguish three mechanisms through which governance-based oversight may have an impact on public service providers. This new regulatory regime could 1) have an agenda-setting effect within organizations, could 2) stimulate organizational decision-makers to take well-considered decisions and could 3) induce a sense of relational felt accountability towards the regulator. |
Artikel |
Hoe wethouders hun eigen gezag waarnemen |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 3 2018 |
Trefwoorden | Authority, Aldermen, Mayors, Self-report, Local government |
Auteurs | Corné van der Meulen MSc, Drs. Thijs Jansen en Dr. Niels Karsten MA |
Samenvatting |
Over the last four years, one in five Dutch aldermen was forced to step down involuntarily. Drawing on a survey among the 2018 population of these local political-executives, the article evaluates office holders’ self-perceived authority in four authorizing environments, that is the municipal council, the municipal board, among civil servants, and among citizens. The results show that, contrary to the authority-crisis thesis, Dutch aldermen perceive quite a high level of authority overall. Current office holders name trustworthiness as their main source of authority, followed by their personal style in executing their tasks and their moral leadership. This finding illustrates the individualization of contemporary authority at the expense of institutional and positional sources of authority. |
Artikel |
De ongekende effecten van deregulering: een experiment in Hollands Kroon |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 3 2018 |
Trefwoorden | deregulation, deviant behavior, policy experiment, social control |
Auteurs | Dr. Peter Kruyen, Prof. dr. Taco Brandsen en Dr. Berry Tholen |
Samenvatting |
What happens in the case of massive deregulation in the local public domain? Despite the widespread call for ‘less regulation’, the effects of large-scale deregulation have received surprisingly little academic attention. In this article, we present the results of a longitudinal study on the effects of deregulation in the Dutch municipality of Hollands Kroon. The municipality abolished a vast number of regulations on public order offences in a radical two-year policy experiment, encouraging citizens to exercise more social control. In contrast, criticasters expected that the experiment would lead to more public offenses and conflict. Based on our data collected over three survey rounds; focus groups with citizens, politicians and civil servants; and several secondary data sources, we conclude that there was little effect: neither an increase in public order offences, nor an increase in social control. Our research shows that, in the short term, deregulation did not significantly affect the behavior of citizens. |