How can you best deliver effective public services? Is it better to exert top-down control over the work of bureaucrats on the ground – through targets, monitoring, and prescribed procedures – so that slacking or corruption or inconsistency can be prevented? Or can more be achieved if you free up bureaucrats to work out their own approaches, utilizing their practical knowledge and allowing their desire to do a good job to flourish?
Our colleague Dr Dan Honig, who is Associate Professor of Public Policy here in the UCL Department of Political Science, argues that we have tended to get the balance wrong, with too much top-down control and not enough freedom on the ground. In two books – one of them published in 2018 by Oxford University Press and the other on its way – Dan sets out the case for a new approach.
And his work is making waves not just in academia. At the end of 2021 he was announced by Apolitical as one of its hundred most influential academics in government in the world.
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UCL’s Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of politics, including international relations, political theory, human rights, public policy-making and administration. The Department is recognised for its world-class research and policy impact, ranking among the top departments in the UK on both the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the latest Guardian rankings.
Political Philosophy and Climate Change
Politics in Northern Ireland
Voting Systems and the Representation of Women
The Politics of Climate Change
The Origins of the Secular State
Courage in Politics
The Transformation of British Welfare Policy
The Origins of Social Trust
Why did Argentina invade the Malvinas/Falklands in 1982?
The Pedagogy of Politics
Taking Offence
Intermarriage and Voting in Africa
Governments and Private Sector Suppliers
Public Preferences on Taxes and Spending
Online Public Shaming: Social Media, Ethics and Punishment
Legacies of Armed Conflict in Northern Ireland
COP26 in Review: Reflections on Glasgow
Regulating the Internet
Analysing Politicians’ Words
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