Dutch water boards are commonly viewed as important player in making the Netherlands climate-proof, resonating in calls to transform water boards into ‘climate boards’. Upcoming legislative changes (i.e. the Environment and Planning Act) stress the importance of integrated approaches, emphasizing spatial quality and collaboration. Dutch water boards are therefore in a strategic repositioning process, in which the relation to the spatial planning domain stands central. The institutions’ adaptation process started already in the 1990s, yet the urgency of the current climate crisis makes it more pressing. However, strategic repositioning might be hampered due to the corona crisis. An acute crisis can absorb all attention and thereby impede a long-term transition. The question is, though, if this also applies to the water boards, as they do not have a primary responsibility in combatting Covid-19. Based on a framing analysis of strategic position papers and interviews with water board employees, we shed light on this repositioning process by identifying the water boards’ new ‘mission mystique’ and accompanying opportunities and dilemmas. We conclude that water boards remain rather cautious in living up to their new mission of a proactive partner in integrated planning; they could use their strong reputation as water authorities to act more courageous in climate-related spatial planning decisions. |
Thema-artikel |
Van waterschappen naar ‘klimaatschappen’? Kansen en belemmeringen voor strategische herpositionering in tijden van crisis |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 4 2021 |
Trefwoorden | water boards, climate crisis, strategic repositioning, integrated planning, mission mystique |
Auteurs | Margo van den Brink en Britta Restemeyer |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Thema-artikel |
De verleiding van bestuurlijke blikvernauwing: schuld en tijd in COVID-19-crisisbeleid |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 4 2021 |
Trefwoorden | crisis management, blame avoidance, COVID-19, crisis communication, time |
Auteurs | Joram Feitsma en Marij Swinkels |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
As public institutions seek to come to grips with the crisis of COVID-19, they risk getting trapped in a unilateral here-and-now crisis management style that overlooks other long-term societal issues. We raise the question how and why this is the case. What makes here-and-now crisis management so ‘attractive’ from a political-administrative perspective? Through which strategies is this style being promoted? Guided by the literature on blame management, we empirically analyze the Dutch COVID-19 crisis communication. We specifically zoom into a pivotal yet underexposed facet: the role of time. Three time-related blame management strategies are empirically explored and interpreted: 1) playing with the time horizon; 2) organizing self-reinforcing institutional rhythms of monitoring and decision-making; 3) selectively naming uncertainties and risks. All three subtly add to a short time horizon in managing the COVID-19 crisis, revealing how interwoven time and blame are in public decision-making. |
Thema-artikel |
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Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 4 2021 |
Trefwoorden | creeping crises, climate change, feedback, system dynamics |
Auteurs | Vincent de Gooyert en Heleen de Coninck |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Addressing a creeping crisis like climate change requires nothing less than a system transition. A system transition is very complex and hence its success depends to a large extent on feedback effects: mechanisms where an initial change reinforces itself or balances itself out. Urgent crises are more salient than creeping crises. However, it is possible to combine policies for both urgent and creeping crises, as can be seen in policies that aim for a green recovery. In this article, we conclude that up till now such policies have overlooked the relevance of feedback effects. We provide examples of corona recovery measures that simultaneously help to establish a system transition through feedback effects. |
Thema-artikel |
Verduurzaming vergt het omarmen van diepe onzekerheid |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 4 2021 |
Trefwoorden | transition, unpredictability, foresight, speculation, usability |
Auteurs | Ed Dammers |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The government strives for a low-carbon energy supply, sustainable agriculture and a circular economy. These transitions require a long-term orientation, while the long term is surrounded by deep uncertainty. This challenge poses two dilemmas for public knowledge institutions such as PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. First, they should pay more attention to the unpredictability of the future, while policymakers expected them to make the future more predictable. Second, they should support the use of foresight more, while policymakers operate in a context that discourages this. The dilemmas require that the knowledge institutions make more work of speculation, that they actively organise the use of foresight and that they seek to connect with formal policy processes. While doing this it’s important that the knowledge institutions maintain their core values of scientific excellence, policy orientation and independence and also propagate this. |
Thema-artikel |
Investeren in de toekomst na COVID-19: speelt de crisis een rol in partijpositionering? |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 4 2021 |
Trefwoorden | intertemporal policymaking, policy investments, crisis, party positioning, elections |
Auteurs | Pieter Tuytens |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Do the budgetary consequences of an acute crisis make us less willing to tackle long-term challenges? This paper asks whether the recent COVID-19 crisis has affected the willingness of parties to commit to so-called ‘policy investments’. These are policies where short-term costs are accepted in anticipation of higher benefits in the longer run. Theoretically, there is no unambiguous prediction as to whether the recent crisis plays a role in repositioning party preferences regarding policy investments. In light of this theoretical ambiguity, this article aims to provide an empirical answer by measuring and comparing party positioning regarding policy investments of Dutch parties during the two general elections for the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamerverkiezingen) of 2017 and 2021 respectively. To identify which proposals qualify as policy investments, and measure the corresponding willingness to engage in them, the article builds on calculations of the budgetary impact of party manifestos provided by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (Centraal Planbureau; Keuze in Kaart). The subsequent analysis shows that overall willingness of parties to engage in policy investments has increased during the COVID-19 crisis; suggesting that the tension between addressing short- and long-term challenges is less strict that often suggested. |
Thema-artikel |
Corona: stresstest voor het binnenlands bestuur?Over de Nederlandse corona-aanpak: differentiatie tussen en inbedding in de veiligheidsregio’s |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 3 2021 |
Trefwoorden | Corona virus, Health crisis, Safety regions, Local office holders |
Auteurs | Caspar van den Berg, Geerten Boogaard, Sofie Dreef e.a. |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In the Netherlands, the first period of the fight against the corona virus, which lasted from March, 1 until December 1, 2020, can be seen as a unique experiment. During this period, the 25 chairs of the ‘safety regions’ (veiligheidsregio’s), who are simultaneously the major of an important municipality in their region, were authorized for the first time to issue the most essential measures to tackle a national health crisis, partly on the binding advice of the Dutch health minister. The chairs of the safety regions gathered in the so-called ‘safety convention’ (veiligheidsberaad), in which they aimed to nationally coordinate their respective local measures. In this paper, we argue that the involvement of the safety regions provided a structure in which all local office holders in their respective regions (both on the municipal and the safety region level) could co-operate in the nation-wide fight against the pandemic, while at the same time take into account the existing (cultural) differences between the 25 regions. |
Thema-artikel |
Naar een politiek-bestuurlijke herdefinitie van pandemische paraatheidSturing van de COVID-19-respons in Azië en Europa |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 3 2021 |
Trefwoorden | pandemic preparedness, COVID-19 governance, welfare state failure, mitigation and control, political economy |
Auteurs | Marleen Bekker en Ivo ten Have |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Despite the highest ranks on pandemic preparedness assessments European welfare states encounter great difficulty in responding effectively to the COVID-19 outbreak. In this article we compare the governance of COVID-19 response in 48 Eurasian countries and a selection of European and SARS (2003) exposed Asian countries during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak until 1 June 2020, using data from the COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor and the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, recent scientific literature and policy documents. |
Dissertatie |
Local government in times of global challengesThe implications of the Financial Crisis since 2007 on public finances at the municipal level in the Netherlands |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 3 2021 |
Auteurs | Jan Porth |
Thema-artikel |
Wetenschappelijk advies en coronabeleid: een bestuurskundige reflectie |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 3 2021 |
Trefwoorden | science for policy, policy advice, policy making, wicked issues, COVID19 policy |
Auteurs | Hans de Bruijn en Martijn van der Steen |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
This paper takes a public administration lens to look at the relationship between scientific knowledge en policy making during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemix in The Netherlands. Policy makers portrayed an eagerness for scientific knowledge to help them make ‘the right decisions’, and many scientist were just as eager to answer the call. However, there are many dilemmas involved in the relationship between policy making and scientific advice. How can de the relationship between science and policy best be organized? What scientific dicisplines and subsidsciplines should be involved? And what is the specific role of social sciences in policy advice? |
Thema-artikel |
Tweebenig besturen binnen zorgnetwerkenBesturen tijdens de ‘hamer’ en de ‘dans’ in zorgregio west |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 3 2021 |
Trefwoorden | network management, health care managers, innovation, consolidation, health care networks, COVID-19, crisis management |
Auteurs | Jelmer Schalk, Eduard Schmidt, Suzan van der Pas e.a. |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Crisis management requires health care managers to simultaneously innovate, i.e. to adjust – and to consolidate, i.e. to provide stability. COVID-19 was no exception in this respect. In this study, we ask to what extent multi-actor and multi-level health care networks stimulate or hinder balancing innovation and consolidation. We present the results of a qualitative case study, drawing upon 29 interviews with health care managers in one region in the Netherlands. Our analysis chronologically follows the crisis management response and differentiates between ‘the hammer’ phase (the ‘lockdown’) and the ‘dance’ phase (learning to live with the virus). We show that, especially in the hammer phase, formal networks can contribute to consolidation, yet innovation comes mostly from informal and personal networks. While the hammer phase should help organizations prepare to live and dance with the virus, we show that multi-actor and multi-level networks focus more on idiosyncratic organizational interests, although some of these are in fact productive. We conclude with recommendations for practice. |
Kroniek |
Bestuurskundige en veranderkundige lessen uit het leven van Arthur Docters van Leeuwen |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 3 2021 |
Trefwoorden | Change Management, Administrative Reform, Administrative History, The Netherlands, Public Leadership |
Auteurs | Zeger van der Wal |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Arthur Docters van Leeuwen was a legendary senior civil servant whose leadership in tough reform processes left many traces in Dutch public administration, even today. In my review of his 2020 memoires ‘Een Spoor van Vernieuwing’, I distil three broad lessons for change management and administrative reform, and administrative craftmanship in particular. |
Thema-artikel |
Pacificatie en polarisatieKentering en continuïteit in politiek en Bestuur in Nederland post 2002 |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 2 2021 |
Auteurs | Frank Hendriks en Mark Bovens |
Auteursinformatie |
Thema-artikel |
Verzelfstandiging van overheidsdiensten |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 2 2021 |
Auteurs | W.J.M. Kickert, N.P. Mol en A. Sorber |
Auteursinformatie |
Thema-artikel |
De bestendigheid van kentering én continuïteitWetenschappelijke reflectie op ‘Pacificatie en polarisatie’ (2008) |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 2 2021 |
Auteurs | Koen Damhuis |
Auteursinformatie |
Vrij artikel |
Inspectietoezicht op de Belastingdienst in internationaal perspectief |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 1 2021 |
Trefwoorden | inspection supervision, Tax and Customs Administration, international comparative, Charter of the rights of taxpayers, quality of public service |
Auteurs | Drs. Pieter Welp en Dr. Meike Bokhorst |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The cabinet has decided to set up a national inspectorate with the task of supervising the quality and the rule of law of the public services provided by the tax authorities. The reason for this is the persistent problems surrounding the Tax and Customs Administration for years (organization, management, IT, personnel) and more recently the crisis surrounding the supplementary child benefit. The Netherlands is not the first and will soon not be the only country with a special regulator for the tax authorities and which focuses on legal protection of taxpayers and the quality of the service. In this article, we ask ourselves how the institution of the new Dutch inspectorate relates to the situation in various foreign countries and we examine which dilemmas and policy questions these raise. We note that with this new inspection the Netherlands is in tune with the situation in various foreign countries. Regarding the relationship and cooperative relationship with the National Ombudsman, the guarantee of the independent and impartial exercise of inspection supervision and the increasing importance of a Charter of the rights of taxpayers, a few important policy questions remain in a comparative sense. |
Vrij artikel |
Weerbarstige lokale inpassing van geo-energieprojecten‘Localism’ en ‘soft power’ als handelingsperspectief voor gemeenten? |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 1 2021 |
Trefwoorden | subsoil interventions, network management, Localism, Participation |
Auteurs | Dr. ir. Geert Roovers en Dr. Mike Duijn |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Subsoil interventions in the Netherlands are crucial elements in the transition to a sustainable energy future. These subsoil interventions concern reduction of fossil energy mining, extraction of thermal energy, energy storage and CSS storage. These geo projects cause tensions. Planning under the mining law leads to local resistance, debate and often delay or cancelling of initiatives. The central characteristics of this planning are an important cause. As the transition to sustainable energy asks for more interventions in the subsoil, these tensions get problematic, and hinder the transition. In this article we investigate this problematic nature of planning under the mining law. In examples we show the problems, and accordingly we analyse them. We explore a more prominent role of local actors, using localism and soft power. With this article we want contribute to national and international discussions about the planning and governance of subsoil initiatives and strengthening of local involvement in these. |
Thema-artikel |
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Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 1 2021 |
Trefwoorden | managerial mania, prestigious projects, behavioural public administration, mega projects, checks and balances |
Auteurs | Dr. Wouter Jan Verheul en Dr. Meike Bokhorst |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Prestigious urban projects demonstrate many insights in the functioning of public administration. Especially, prestigious urban projects can teach us about what we call ‘managerial mania’. Following the perspective of behavioural public administration, this article observes significant characteristics of managerial mania, such as elated behaviour, an exaggerated positive self-image, infectious enthusiasm, selective argumentation, tunnel vision, and an unsubstantiated faith that plans will succeed. As a consequence of managerial mania, prestigious projects are at risk of cost overruns, project fiascos, or underdelivering the expected outcomes promised by politicians or top-level managers. This article explores the phenomenon of managerial mania based on examples of large and controversial urban projects. Furthermore, this article describes and analyses the symptoms of managerial mania, its implications, and its mechanisms. Finally, the authors suggest some means of restraining the most extreme forms of managerial mania. |