Regionalization is foregrounded among policymakers as a solution to the complex problems elderly care is facing, such as a pertinent staff shortage, a greying population and a lack of suitable accommodation. In this article, following a decentered approach, we analyze how field parties like nursing homes and policymakers in interaction give shape to regional collaborations within a market-oriented institutional healthcare context. Our findings show the emerging frictions, due to layered institutional arrangements and the proliferation of policy initiatives and partnerships. We find different responses of institutional actors to these frictions; actors holding off closer regional cooperation, actors creating urgency and commitment to organize care regionally, creating interstices in rules and regulations and building regional networks and care infrastructures. We argue that a focus on the iterative processes through which actors on different layers of the healthcare system give shape to policies adds a valuable perspective to the study of policy changes. We conclude that ‘layered work’ – mobilizing and working with and between different organizational and policy layers simultaneously – is required to develop appropriate (layered) ways to deal with complex problems.

In this feature authors review recently published books on subjects of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij.

Functional politicization – political activities and capacities taken on by bureaucrats within their administrative function – has received increased academic attention over recent years. Regardless, the factors and determinants behind this phenomenon remain a point of uncertainty and debate. Within this study, we explore whether increased political polarization and fragmentation in the Dutch political landscape from 2007 to 2019 and functional politicization are related. To do so, we analyze data from surveys conducted in 2007, 2013 and 2019 and semi-structured interviews conducted in 2019 to establish which skills – political-strategic insight, substantive expertise (Fachwissen), or procedural knowledge (Dienstwissen) – are perceived by senior civil servants to be the most prevalent in exercising their profession. The data depicts the prevalence of political astuteness in the profession and highlights three causal dimensions: institutional, organizational, and interpersonal dynamics. It however fails to highlight a cross-time evolution, which is hypothesized to be due to a ceiling effect of this competence having constantly been perceived as the most prevalent. The latter adds a theoretical dimension to the notion of functional politicisation, as it aligns with other academic findings that suggest senior civil servants are now subject to heightened pressures due to being increasingly monitored and in the (public) spotlight.

In this paper we study the institutional impact of the Dutch senior executive service (Dutch: Algemene Bestuursdienst, hereafter: ABD) on the craft of senior civil servants in Dutch government. Our study rests upon a thorough evaluation conducted in 2020. For this study, we interviewed 51 (former) cabinet ministers, members of parliament, senior civil servants, HR experts and ‘outsiders’. We structure our paper in three parts. First, we discuss the founding principles and motives for the institutional renewal that became the ABD. Second, we discuss the ABD’s practice. Third, we signal and interpret the outcomes of the ABD so far. This results in five critical observations. We conclude the ABD has become an institutional fact. Nonetheless, the ABD could have done more to transcend the focus on individual appointments and development of collective craftmanship, and to visibly shape and protect such craftmanship.

In this paper, the athour responds to 't Hart's and Belabas' emphasis on a call for more impact, more specifically, more societal impact. First and foremost, it is important to define what societal impact means, and how it can be generated. In additon to increasing the effects of academic knowledge, it can also mean more links with societal issues, and/or more contributions to changing the societal order. This, in turn, also implies changing academic impact, namely impact on other academic disciplines. In addition, it is important to clarify 'impact pathways' when societal impact is 'made'. Impact can be visible and instantaneous, but it can also be hidden, and/or stretched in time. Public administration scholars should trave these different routes to impact, by going outside, observing grass roots processes, showcase intriguing experiences, and make subtle knowledge connections.

Employability is often framed as a win-win situation for both organizations and employees. It is therefore no surprise that governments’ management development policies usually heavily invest in the employability of public managers. Whether this approach has potential downsides for both parties has been overlooked so far. The aim of this article is to present a critical view on employability of public managers. We illustrate the added value as well as risks of employability investments by using recent Dutch data on senior civil servants. Our findings indicate that employability has benefits but that it can become ‘too much of a good thing’ leading to risks as organizational amnesia and loss of managerial credibility.

In this article we reflect on the scientific, the administrative governmental and societal impact of Dutch public administration. We argue that this discipline has put itself strongly on the map in the last half century. Additionally, the discipline has, in line with the ethos of its founding fathers, developed itself closely in dialogue with administrative practices. This has led to many different forms of impact in the administrative-professional field. However, there is much to gain when it comes to societal impact, and in particular the visibility of public administration in the broader public debate about the many societal challenges that modern societies face.

In this special issue, we set the scene: we explain what we do in this special issue, and why. All authors analyze the 'improvement' of public managers, of their work, behavior, craft, profession. This is paradoxical: professional public managers are seen as highly important, but it is highly unclear what it means to be and act as professional public managers. We sketch four perspectives on the professionalization of public managers. They will be elaborated in the various papers: a 1) bureaucratic, 2) political, 3) strategic human resource, and 4) societal perspective. They will have to be combined to get a fuller picture of 'effective' public managers.

When the corona virus was reported in the Netherlands in March 2020, it also had a major impact on public administration. At that time it was still completely unclear which consequences would be temporary and which would be permanent, but it was immediately clear that it presented unique study material. There was every reason to quickly start describing, analysing and interpreting the first consequences of the fight against corona for politics, administration and policy, with a focus on local authorities. That is why in April 2020, with the support of the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the ‘Corona papers’ research programme was set up by the Thorbecke Chair (Geerten Boogaard), in which a number of renowned scientists took part. Platform31 (Rogier van der Wal) was also involved. It took care of the accompanying website and newsletters and organised the final conference. Five of these ‘Corona papers’ have been revised and updated for this special issue.

This article examines the rally round the flag in the Netherlands during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, i.e. the rise in trust in political authorities in response to the external threat. The authors use unique panel data to do this, the first of which took place in the days before the announcement of the first national lockdown (mid-March 2020), and the second shortly after the announcement of the reopening of schools (late April/early May 2020). This allows them to isolate the rally in time. Their research shows that the government in particular has gained confidence. Confidence in other political institutions rose to a lesser extent; confidence in the police and the judiciary did not increase. We can best understand the rise in confidence as a decline in cynicism: during the first wave, politicians were less often portrayed as incompetent, which proved to be a motivator for increasing confidence. Fear of contamination was an important motivation for increasing confidence. Under the influence of the external threat, people placed their hopes on political authorities. Both mechanisms may explain that confidence rose particularly sharply among voters of radical right parties, although radical right voters remained the least trusting voters.

The corona crisis has shaken up the tasks, roles and relationships in the Municipal Executive (B&W) in the Netherlands. The question is what this has meant for the role and for the position of aldermen: the relationship between aldermen themselves, their relationship with the mayor, the municipal council, the civil service and society. A digital survey was used to investigate whether and how the crisis measures have changed the role and the position of aldermen. In addition, questions were asked about policy changes as a result of the corona crisis. The survey was completed by 145 aldermen, bringing the response rate to 10%. The corona crisis had a major impact on the role and position of aldermen. Their contacts with civil servants have become more intensive across the board, their boards have become more collegial and their mayors have taken on a more guiding and coordinating role. Contacts with the municipal councils are less intensive as a result of the corona crisis, which does not apply to their own groups. Relations with companies and institutions have been strengthened; those with citizens have remained unchanged.

During meetings, policy teams run the risk of producing false consensus and personal conflicts. Asserting one’s own viewpoint often reduces hearing those of others. Changing this requires developing recognition of the perspective of other team members, without depreciating one’s own. We aimed to study the effect of visualizing team members’ views of a problematic situation and their proposed policy approaches. We explored the feasibility of a network diagram visualization method, by assessing team members attitude towards it, expectations about the policy progress and its influence on their mental representation of the policy problem at hand. A field trial was conducted in two policy teams in two non-profit organizations: one healthcare and one financial. In both cases, we compared the newly developed visualization method with meeting as usual. Open and semi-structured interviews were used to collect team members’ views. The qualitative and quantitative analyses showed enhanced mental representations by means of visualization and positive ratings of both the method and its expected effect on consequent policy quality. In conclusion, the results warrant substantive investment into further large-scale research as to sample size, time window, and into its generalizability towards collaborative governance.

In this feature authors review recently published books on subjects of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij.

In this feature authors review recently published books on subjects of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij.

This article describes the relationship between central government and municipalities and to what extent this relationship has an impact on local decision-making. The commonly used characterization of this relationship as a principal-agent relationship offers many leads but has some shortcomings. That is why this is compared with the stewardship theory, assuming a more equal and constructive cooperation. Both theories have been incorporated into a broader model on management styles, which creates a more nuanced description of the cooperation in public administration. The article focuses on the case of Rotterdam in 2015, at a time of political turmoil in the Netherlands about the shelter of people without residence permit. The analysis is carried out using a measuring instrument for policy freedom, as policy freedom is a good determinant for which management style is used. The research is conducted from a local perspective, with emphasis on the position of councilors. The national government sometimes profiles itself as a principal to them, but in practice council members resist and turn the relationship around, hereby holding the government accountable for its role and responsibility.

This article provides a computer-assisted morality framing analysis of Vlaams Belang’s 2019 manifesto. The VB is regarded in the literature as a prototypical example of the Populist Radical Right (PRR). We first concisely review what PRR politics is and what it consists of, tentatively distinguishing four elements that we hypothesise will materialise in corresponding subframes running throughout the manifesto. We point to a mismatch between the omnipresent role of morality in all PRR subframes and the little attention devoted to the concept in the PRR literature. We introduce a useful theory from social psychology into framing literature to create a novel methodological approach to frame analysis that builds a bridge between a qualitative content and a quantitative context approach. The results support our hypothesis that populism, nationalism, nativism and authoritarianism can be distinguished from one another. Additionally, we detect a fifth PRR subframe, crimmigration, by its unique role of morality.

Both in a legal and in a practical sense, the tasks of executives in school boards are difficult to delineate. Consequently, credibility of boards and their members has become topical. What makes an executive board credible? How do executives become and remain credible? In this article we address these questions and present the results of our qualitative analysis of the way in which executives in primary education give meaning and substance to their efforts. Based on the empirical results, it appears that executives of the board are well aware of the need to be perceived credible. It also appears that they take this into account in their daily behavior and interactions.

Public-private partnerships (PPS) are often used by public procurers. This article evaluates the application of PPS in the Netherlands by reflecting on the findings on a recently published report “Learning from 15 years DBFM-projects at the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management” (or “Leren van 15 jaar DBFM-projecten bij RWS” in Dutch).

The effectiveness and legitimacy of action strategies in the realm of spatial decision making Increasing spatial claims require careful decision-making. The question is where, from an institutional point of view, decision-making can best take place. Traditionally, balancing interests takes place in the political arena. Our legal system also guarantees legally anchored interests. In addition, we have expected for decades that participation processes stimulate participation, creativity and co-creation of citizens and entrepreneurs. Moreover, the arrival of the new Environment Act in the Netherlands gives participation a more compelling character: for private initiators, such as project developers, the organization of participation is even a hard requirement in a number of cases. Under the new Environment Act, policymakers, administrators, citizens and companies must constantly make a choice between participating, legalizing or politicizing in decision-making processes. This article analyses this choice from the perspectives of effectiveness and legitimacy. Is decision-making through participation more effective, or are parties better off in the courtroom, or the local council for effective and legitimate decisions? Theoretically, this question is interesting because the answer teaches us about effective and legitimate governance. For the practice of environmental decision-making, we consider when the participatory, legal or political route can best be followed to create both effective and legitimate decisions.

In 2015, the three decentralizations in the social domain took place, a transfer of tasks and resources from the national government to municipalities in the Netherlands. Since then, the Dutch municipalities have been responsible for tasks related to work, care and youth. How the municipalities have tackled these tasks? What is the situation in the social domain seven years later? And what is the relationship between municipalities and national government?
It appears that municipalities are struggling with their new tasks, mainly because of the insufficient financial resources and the limited freedom of choice. With regard to the characterization of the transfer of tasks, it is better to speak of the three deconcentrations, instead of the three decentralizations. Municipalities have received new tasks, but experience little policy freedom to tackle those tasks. In order to achieve the goals associated with the transfer to municipalities, it is necessary to increase the scope for municipalities to make their own choices. In this way, national government and municipalities can work on more equal relations.