Public administration under competitive authoritarianism: impact of democratic backsliding on public administration in Sri Lanka

In this article, I use Tolkien’s three-volume novel <em>The Lord of the Rings </em>as an allegory to elucidate the extent of the hegemonic power accorded<em> </em>to the executive president by the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka. For this<em> </em>purpose, I compare the nature of the power dynamics resulting from the<em> </em>executive presidency with that of the ‘One Ring’, which allows its wielder the<em> </em>power to overpower the novel’s world. I draw parallels between their design<em> </em>and the effect upon those who possess them. However, the significance of<em> </em>delving into the nuances of this comparison between law and literature<em> </em>lies not only in its capacity to elucidate the current power dynamics of<em> </em>the executive presidency but also in its potential to challenge these power<em> </em>dynamics. Fantasy literature is especially important in this regard because<em> </em>the function of the fantasy genre is to defy convention, defy the status<em> </em>quo, and imagine the impossible. Therefore, I approach fantasy literature as<em> </em>a form of literary resistance. Focusing on law, the capacity to imagine new<em> </em>visions for justice plays a significant role in the development of the law.<em> </em>I explore what <em>The Lord of the Rings </em>can offer in attempts to dismantle the<em> </em>powers concentrated in the executive presidency. With this aim, I interpret<em> </em>the novel’s quest to destroy the ring as a saga of persistent resistance<em> </em>and apply this interpretation to the Sri Lankan attempts at abolishing and<em> </em>limiting the powers of the presidency so far.<em></em>

Kenneth Kernaghan and Canadian Public Administration: Editor's Note and Remembrances

ABSTRACTThe debate on whether the executive presidential system which was introduced to Sri Lanka in 1978 should be retained, reformed or abolished is not a new one. It is a topic which is central to constitutional reformation in Sri Lanka, but one which always carries the potential of either making or breaking any attempt made at reforming the Constitution. This article examines the character of the post of executive president in Sri Lanka and how the most recent constitutional reforms process (initiated in 2015–2016) has sought to engage with the topic of executive presidency. Departing from the more popular trend of unconditionally critiquing the executive presidency, this article calls for a more realistic and dispassionate assessment of not only the possibility of abolishing the executive presidency but also of the viability of a prime ministerial system in Sri Lanka.

Democratic backsliding has garnered significant attention in recent years (V-Dem 2023), though the relationship with public administration has received less attention. The emphasis of the literature has been on erosion in liberal democracies and less so on intra-regime changes in non-democracies (Waldner and Lust 2018). I take a case study approach to explore democratic backsliding within Pakistan’s tutelary hybrid regime, using Waldner and Lust’s (2018) “balance-of-power framework” and Khan’s concept of “holding power” to contextualise the case. I adapt Waldner and Lust’s identification of democratic institutional effects to Pakistan, arguing that tutelary hybrid regimes not only weaken both political institutions and public administration in and of themselves, but also skew the incentives of politicians and bureaucrats driving them to undermine the system of public administration in pursuit of personal advantage. This produces a vicious cycle, trapping countries like Pakistan in persistently poor public policies, services, and administration, and stagnant or eroding democratic norms and practices. The Pakistani case is an interesting comparator for other postcolonial countries for understanding the inter-related nature of public administration and democratic backsliding. More broadly, I contribute to the literature on understanding how bureaucratic politics plays an essential role in understanding democratic and authoritarian trajectories.

The article states that when reforming the public administration of Ukraine in the direction of its democratization and adaptation to European standards, one of the main issues is staffing the public administration with highly professional and competent professionals capable of working in government at the transformational stage of society. One of the priority areas of socio-economic development of Ukraine is the qualitative improvement of the system of training, retraining and advanced training of civil servants.Having set a course for the development of a qualitatively new civil service institution, the state has identified the need to reform the institute of professional training of civil servants. The adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On Civil Service” in 2016, which defined the guiding ideas and fundamental principles of the functioning of the institute of civil service in Ukraine, is considered to be a kind of start in reforming the institute of professional training of civil servants.An important problematic aspect of the issue of education of professionalism in the process of training civil servants are educational institutions that conduct educational activities in the field of training future civil servants. The implementation of educational activities in the field of professional training of civil servants is aimed at training highly qualified specialists in the field of civil service and public administration belongs to the competence of exclusively state institutions of higher education.The main issue of quality professional training of civil servants is the development of standards of higher education on the basis of their clear compliance with the needs of the civil service of Ukraine, namely professional training.It is necessary to bring the educational standard of knowledge «Public Administration and Management» in accordance with the requirements of current legislation and the practice of European countries regarding the calculation of the educational process in the process of educational activities and training of civil servants.Advanced training of civil servants is carried out on the basis of educational programs developed by relevant scientific and pedagogical workers-specialists in the field of public administration and governance. Currently, educational programs for the training of civil servants are being modernized. For example, training of civil servants in the European transfer and accumulation system is a borrowing of European Community practice in this area and allows for accurate accounting of learned material and also creates additional opportunities for government regulation in the field of civil servants.

A functional legislature is very vital for democratisation. During the time of democratic consolidation, parliament changes from its primary roles of oversight, representation and legislation into ‘important public arenas of partisan dispute, of encounters with social topics, of negotiations and of important decision-making’. Populist leaders in parliamentary systems like Turkey recently either led to sui generis presidential systems or transformed them into illiberal democracies by expanding the executive branch's power to amend the constitution, which contradicts the favourable conditions of the third wave of democratisation at the turn of the twenty-first century. By streamlining legislative processes, the Turkish Constitution of 1982 envisaged an empowered executive that would subordinate the parliament. The three constitutional modifications passed after 2007 resulted in de-democratisation, de-parliamentarisation and eventually, a regime change from democratic consolidation to autocracy. The parliamentary debates on these constitutional amendments, which included popular presidential election, judicial reform and the so-called 'Turkish style' presidential governance system, failed to reach a consensus and were marked by an adversarial rather than deliberative approach. Have constitutional reforms made in the name of re-democratisation resulted in de-democratisation, with the legislature entirely crippled, the judiciary reliant and the executive exercising sole authority? This study aims to analyse the impact of three consequential constitutional amendments on democratic backsliding in Turkey, with special reference to the decline of parliament. Parliamentary minutes on the relevant constitutional amendments, procedural changes disabling the parliament from performing its legislative and oversight functions and the actual outcomes of these amendments in terms of executive-legislative relations will be discussed. In conclusion, potentials for strengthening parliament, checks and balances, and re-democratisation will be presented.

مستخلص تستهدف هذه الدراسة التعرف على أوجه القصور والجودة فى التشريعات المنظمة لدور مؤسسات وأجهزة الخدمة المدنية في الدول الخليجية فى عملية تنفيذ السياسات العامة عموما وإدارة الموارد البشرية على وجه الخصوص؛ وبيان الدوافع والأسباب التى توجب على غالبية هذه الدول المبادرة لمعالجة وإصلاح التشريعات الخاصة بعمل وأدوار وسياسات ونظم عمل هذه المؤسسات الإدارية باعتبارها من المشاکل الأساسية في الإدارة العامة التى تعوق فعاليتها فى خطط واستراتيجيات السياسات العامة أو تتسبب فى تدنى المؤشرات الاستجابية الخاصة بها، وبالتالي عدم تطوير جودة الأداء ودرجة الإنتاجية وتطبيق برامج الجودة الشاملة والحوکمة أو الحکم الرشيد فى هذه الدول. وقد تم تقسيم هذه الدراسة إلى ثلاثة أقسام وخاتمة: يتضمن القسم الأول فيها تعريفا بالمفاهيم والمصطلحات الرئيسية فى الدراسة وهى الخدمة المدنية والموارد البشرية. أما القسم الثانى فيعرض لکافة التشريعات الأساسية المنظمة والمحددة لتشکيل وأدوار وأهداف وسلطات وصلاحيات مؤسسات وأجهزة الخدمة المدنية الحکومية فى هذه الدول. بينما يتناول القسم الثالث التطورات والتحديات الجديدة التى تستدعى أو تفرض ضرورة إجراء عملية شاملة لإصلاح القصور التشريعى فى کافة القوانين واللوائح المتعلقة والمنظمة لدورأجهزة المدنية فى إدارة الموارد البشرية الحکومية خاصة وتنفيذ السياسات العامة فى دول الخليج عموما. أما الخاتمة فتقدم بعض المقترحات والتوصيات اللازمة لمعالجة أوجه القصور التشريعى التى تکشف عنها الدراسة وبما يعزز من دور أجهزة ومؤسسات الخدمة المدنية فى إدارة الموارد البشرية الحکومية وتنفيذ السياسات العامة المتعلقة بها فى دول قطر والکويت والبحرين والامارات. کلمات مفتاحية: الخدمة المدنية – الموارد البشرية – التشريعات الإدارية – دول مجلس التعاون الخليجى. Abstract This study aims to identify deficiencies and quality in legislation regulating the role of civil service institutions and agencies in the Gulf countries in the process of implementing public policies in general and managing human resources in particular. Explaining the motives and reasons that require the majority of these countries to take the initiative to address and reform the legislation related to the work, roles, policies and systems of work of these administrative institutions, as they are among the basic problems in public administration that impede their effectiveness in plans and strategies of public policies or cause their own response indicators to decline, and thus not to develop quality Performance, degree of productivity, and implementation of comprehensive quality, governance or good governance programs in these countries. This study has been divided into three sections and a conclusion: The first section includes an introduction to the main concepts and terms in the study, which are civil service and human resources. As for the second section, it presents all the basic laws regulating and determining the formation, roles, objectives, powers and authorities of governmental civil service institutions and agencies in these countries. While the third section deals with new developments and challenges that require or impose the necessity of conducting a comprehensive process to reform the legislative deficiency in all laws and regulations related to and regulating the role of civil agencies in managing government human resources in particular and implementing public policies in the Gulf countries in general. As for the conclusion, it presents some proposals and recommendations necessary to address the legislative deficiencies that the study reveals in a way that enhances the role of civil service agencies and institutions in managing government human resources and implementing public policies related to them in the countries of Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE.

Administrative careers are careers of civil servants, who are the individuals working in public administration institutions at different levels (central, state or regional, local) of government. Characteristics of a country’s civil service system determine what administrative career patterns typically look like. In the literature, two ideal-types of civil service systems are distinguished: the career-based system and the position-based system. In countries with a position-based civil service system, administrative careers usually are more diverse than in countries with a career-based civil service system. In most countries, however, intersectoral career mobility of civil servants is rather low. In democratic systems, recruitment and promotion in the civil service is formally based on merit and (with decreasing significance) seniority, while in practice political criteria and representativeness can be important selection criteria, especially for promotion to senior-level positions. As a consequence of their influential role in policy-making in many countries, research on careers in public administrations is mainly focusing on top-level positions: by analyzing the career background of top officials, public administration scholarship aims to understand the determinants of career success in public administrations as well as processes of administrative elite (re-)production and politicization. Findings from empirical studies suggest that political criteria do not crowd out meritocratic criteria in recruitment in most established democracies but that politicization can have severe negative impacts on administrative outcomes in young democracies and developing countries. Comparative empirical studies on administrative careers based on common datasets are largely lacking so far. More systematic comparative studies (across countries and over time) on administrative careers would not only make it possible to understand how larger systemic developments (e.g., administrative reform movements, democratic backsliding) affect mechanisms of recruitment and promotion in the civil service, but also help to better understand the inner mechanisms in bureaucratic organizations (e.g., by identifying organizational patterns of inequality).

What is democratic backsliding?

PurposeEmerging research on public administration theory has highlighted the need for public sector managers to become better leaders by inspiring and motivating them to align themselves with their organisation's mission and vision. Therefore, transformational leadership has become increasingly appealing in public administration. This study investigates how transformational leadership affects the job performance of those in the Maldives' civil service. Furthermore, it tests the mediation effect of organisational commitment on the relationship between transformational leadership and the job performance of those working in the Maldives' civil service.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a quantitative and cross-sectional design to collect data from 370 employees from different Maldives civil service offices. Data were collected through an online questionnaire, and structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. The mediating effect was tested using bootstrapping.FindingsThe results reveal that transformational leadership did not significantly affect job performance. While a mediation effect was present, the effect size was within a small range.Originality/valueThe results of this study has important implications for the Maldives' civil service from a human resource management perspective and provides insights to policymakers on how to improve leadership in Maldives' civil service institutions. Furthermore, this study contributes significantly to the existing research in understanding the effect of transformational leadership on public sector organisations in Asia and from a developing country's perspective.

During democracy’s Third Wave there was a sense of optimism in the literature concerning the future of democracy, as countries around the world appeared destined for liberal democracy. That optimism has faded as systems in the past half-decade have seen the rise of illiberalism, democratic decline, or autocratization. Political systems found in every region of the world have careened between democracy and authoritarianism, with several systems adopting illiberal features. Given the rise of notable illiberal politicians such as Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party of Hungary, Narendra Modi with the BJP in India, and Donald Trump and the Republican Party in the United States, greater attention is being paid to illiberalism. More specifically, academics, journalists, and policy practitioners seek to better understand why and how these individuals and parties use democracy itself to violate what is seen as the ideal form of self-governance: liberal democracy. The purpose of this bibliography is to provide a survey of the literature on illiberal democracy. It is by no means exhaustive, but should help seasoned and novice students of democracy as they seek to build an understanding of the concept and causes of illiberalism that appear to be becoming more common in the world today. There is no consensus within the literature over what constitutes “illiberal democracy” or even if there is such a thing. For the purpose of this bibliography, illiberal democracy is situated against the ideal of liberal democracy. Liberal democracy is more than a system wherein parties lose elections; it is also one where individual rights and liberties are secured, and the rule of law upheld. Due to the lack of a coherent conceptualization and theme of illiberal democracy, this bibliography casts a wide net to also include democratic erosion, democratic breakdown, or autocratization. The bibliography begins with two sections that explore the concept of illiberalism and democracy and whether the two are inextricably linked. In the first section, What Illiberal Democracy Is and Is Not, there are several citations which conceptualize democracy and liberalism. The following section, Illiberalism, Democracy, and Political Systems, provides more depth on how liberalism is intertwined with democratic systems. Afterwards there are two sections which explore the issue of democratic crises and the global trend toward greater illiberalism. In the subsequent sections, the reader will find literature across several themes related to illiberalism. This includes populism, polarization, and the role Mass Politics and contentious politics play in either supporting or subverting illiberalism. Following these thematic sections are sections with specific work on illiberalism in Central and Eastern Europe, the Americas, and South and Southeast Asia, along with a special look at Islam and illiberalism which overlaps significantly with the Middle East and North Africa.

To keep pace with the trend toward a stronger and wider scope of administrative authority, quantitative and qualitative changes in public administration, in the areas of specialization, technology, and efficiency, governments seek more specialized civil servants to satisfy the idea of is best when it serves most. In the more than 40 years that have passed since the legislation and promulgation of the National Civil Service Act in 1949, the civil service system has changed gradually to accommodate Korea's current situations in public administration. The 1960s and 1970s saw Korean civil servants accomplish national development goals in the public as well as the private sectors. This was made possible to a succession of successful five-year economic development plans that supplemented the weaker segments of the private sector with Well-organized public administration based was on a firm foundation of public administrative power, expertise, and know-how. Even in the period of transformation during the 1980s, a stable organization allowed Korean civil servants to continue to perform. The performance fostered social stability, ensured continued economic growth, and promoted a spirit of autonomy, participation, and unity. At the same time, however, their performance was passive, cloaked in an atmosphere permeated with authoritarianism, coercion, favoritism, shortsighted and reactive policy-making, and secrecy. This situation was the predictable result of the inflexible approach adopted by the Korean government to carry out national policy. In the 21st century Korea will face many challenges, including efforts to achieve democratization, local autonomy, scientific and information-orientation, and internationalization. Collectively, these challenges will require new approaches to public administration and an urgent requirement to realign the functions and roles of the civil service. Changes in public administration will require civil servants to change their roles and attitudes. First, pluralization will make it necessary for civil servants to coordinate conflicts and disputes among numerous and diverse special interest groups. Second, consistent with their expanded role in developing national policy, civil servants must be willing to accommodate the advice, wisdom, and initiative spirit of all special interest groups and individuals. Such an objective approach will improve the effectiveness of national policy goals and foster the highest possible level of public acceptance of the national policy making process. Third, the variety of public administrative demands and the complexity and specialized nature of public administration make it imperative that civil servants acquire and use special techniques and state-of-the art technology in performing their roles. They can no longer use flawed common sense and culturally influenced approaches. At the same time, they must be willing to shoulder the responsibility of preparing themselves to deal with the ever-changing environment in public administration. Fourth, civil servants must develop the ability to anticipate potential problems and deal with them before they become actual problems. To do this, civil servants, at all levels, must foster a positive creative atmosphere for solving problems and carrying out effective public administration. Fifth, with the advent of a democratic society, civil servants must avoid authoritarianism and control-oriented performance of administrative affairs. At the same time, they must work to establish an image of civil servants who are dedicated to the goal of national development. Improving the Environment of Public Administration Balanced Development of Political and Public Administration Developing political democracy depends on how well the executive and legislative branches can separate and coordinate their respective functions with the other; how well the legislature can perform its mandated inspections and, at the same time, maintain the balance of separation and coordination; and how well the legislature controls the diverse functions of the civil service system. …

The twenty-first century is characterized by rapid change, globalization, hyper-competition, and hyper-uncertainty. Traditional models of governance and public administration are no match for the challenges of this chaotic environment. There is an urgent need to restore, both in theory and practice, public governance and administration to develop new sets of knowledge and skills that can meet the challenges of the age of rapid changes. The Civil Service in the UK is proud of the values, talents and effectiveness of their service. They are respected by colleagues in other countries and envied by many. The UK Civil Service has a high reputation. Expectations of it are also high. Consequently, the government is keen to reinvigorate the concept of public service, and celebrate in contribution it makes to society. The history of civil service reform in Britain dates back to the seminal 1854 report by Sir Stafford Northcote and Sir Charles Trevelyan. It introduced competitive examinations and promotion on merit. Between 1966 and 1968, the Fulton committee conducted a wide-ranging examination of the nature, purpose, composition and management of the civil service and made a series of recommendations which were designed to remodel the civil service and equip it to meet the challenges of the late twentieth century. The Fulton Report said that “training should be designed to equip administrators to operate in one or other of the broad group（economic/financial and social），specialists need to be equipped to an appropriate degree for administration and management in addition to their normal skills in their specialisms”. This doctoral dissertation is on the history of the British civil service training and development from Margret Thatcher Administration to Gordon Brown Administration, on how the training institutes deliver a wide range of courses, on-site and tailored work; e-learning; qualifications and consultancy in the Civil Service College, created in 1970 succeeded by the Centre for Management and Policy Studies, created in 1999 and survived until 2005, again succeeded by the National School of Government. All provide several important lessons about how to deliver mass programmes on senior leadership, organizational development, and the added-value of higher level learning and development and academic excellence in government reform. More essential, is what they tell us about how the training development help civil servants develop greater capacity to handle the challenges in a fast moving environment and how the training institutes play their part in building Departmental capability as well as the skills of individuals and how is it committed to ensuring the training programmes support the public service reform and other cross-cutting themes through proposed programmes.

The establishment of the Constitutional School of U.S. Public Administration is one of the most enduring efforts to shape the priorities and responsibilities of running the Constitution in the 21st century. The selections in this book demonstrate empirically how public administration scholars can ground their multi-faceted research in democratic-constitutionalism and the rule of law, both of which advance American constitutional tradition. When Public Administration Review published Stephanie Newbold’s 2010 article on the Constitutional School, the editors classified it as a “big idea” in public administration theory. The purpose of this edited volume is to make the Constitutional School’s presence within the field’s literature even more prominent, vibrant, and useful to scholars and practitioners alike. With this objective in mind, there is a need to be bold. We have discussedin previous work our growing concerns over the direction the field of U.S. public administration has taken, intellectually and pedagogically (Newbold, 2011, 2014; Newbold & Rosenbloom, 2014). Ever since Herbert Simon published Administrative Behavior in 1946, the public administration community has been on a quest to make its research and knowledge base more scientific. That effort has led to an overwhelming emphasis on the application of statistical models and quantitative techniques to answer some of the most central questions affecting public administrative management. Without question quantitative and qualitative methodologies play important roles in public administration scholarship and pedagogy. Equally unquestionably if a comprehensive science of public administration develops, future scholars and practitioners will look back on contemporary research as but a stepperhaps only a very preliminary one-in its evolution. In the spirit of incorporating scientific methods into the field, we have inadvertently undermined the importance of more traditional epistemological and methodological approaches to answering and addressing major issues affecting the administrative state. In Simon’s (1991) autobiography even he observed that the pendulum had swung too far in favor of using scientific approaches and quantitative techniques to solve political problems (pp. 56, 285). In contributing to the further development and advancement of the Constitutional School, we seek to provide greater intellectual balance in the field’sspace organization, design, and behavior of polities have a place to call home and where normative questions concerning law, constitutional thought, ethics, and democratic-constitutionalism are supported and encouraged. Reflecting on the great intellectual history of U.S. public administration isboth rewarding and disheartening. It is rewarding because it allows for serious, thoughtful reflection into some of the most engaging ideas of the modern era. These include questions about the purpose of government (Appleby, 1945; Brownlow, Gulick & Merriam, 1937; Gaus, 1950; Gulick & Urwick, 1937; Mosher, 1968; Pfiffner & Presthus, 1935; Waldo, 1948; Wilson, 1908); the importance of politics to administration (Gaus, 1950; Goodnow, 1900; Kaufman, 1969; Storing, 1962; Waldo, 1948); the value public institutions bring to the citizens they serve (Selznick, 1957; Waldo, 1948); the contemporary relevance of political and administrative history to democratic governance and public management (Mosher, 1976; Storing 1970, 1981a, 1981b; White, 1948, 1951, 1954, 1958); democracy (Appleby, 1945; Mosher, 1968; Strauss & Cropsey, 1963; Waldo, 1948); law and the federal courts (Hart & Witte, 1937; Pfiffner & Presthus, 1935; Schaeffer, 1953; Willoughby, 1929; Wilson, 1908); the political, governing, and managerial responsibilities required by public administrative institutions (Brownlow, 1937; Gulick & Urwick 1937; Pfiffner & Presthus, 1935; Polenberg, 1966; White, 1926; Wilson, 1887); and bureaucracy (Downs, 1966; Kaufman, 1977; Merton, 1957; Weber, 1922). It is disheartening, because we recognize that the work produced byhighly influential thinkers and intellectual contributors to the history of American public administration including but not limited to Paul Appleby, Louis Brownlow, John Gaus, Frank Goodnow, Luther Gulick, Herbert Kaufman, Charles Merriam, Frederick Mosher, Herbert Storing, Dwight Waldo, Leonard White, and W.F. Willoughby would likely find their work desk rejected by some of our field’s leading academic journals if they were writing today. These scholars all focused on big ideas; ideas that provided extraordinary insight into the affairs of governance. They were not dependent upon big data to create a big idea. They delineated the core concerns and big questions that define public administration and public management and created the theories and theoretical frameworks that continue to guide research and practice even as the contemporary focus on quantitative analysis and the use of big data progresses. Without their ideas the fields of public administration and public management would not have developed as they did; without intellectual space for the introduction and discussion of new ideas of their magnitude, these fields will stagnate. Indeed, it is not unfair to say that today these fields are embraced by narrowness of depth and thinness of breadth that fills journal pages but leaves very little room for big theoretical ideas to take center stage. As Larry Terry often observed, the only numbers you find in Simon’s Administrative Behavior are forConstitutions matter. We cannot begin to understand U.S. public admin-istration without first developing a foundation for how natural law and common law underpin the Constitution and the rule of law that govern the American state and its administrative institutions. Although Leonard White (1926) first argued that the study of public administration should begin with a management orientation rather than a legal foundation, after working in the F.D. Roosevelt administration he recognized how unrealistic that recommendation was to both the study and practice of public administrative management. This transformation provides one of the most valuable examples for how practice can inform theory, and exemplifies a very big idea regarding the power to reframe our disciplinary perspectives. U.S. public administration is oftentimes thought of as operating on acontinuum where Dwight Waldo and Herbert Simon anchor each end. Over the past forty years, the field has moved substantially towards Simon’s orientation. An important goal of the Constitutional School is to shift the discourse in the direction of Waldo and the intellectual traditions he fully established and brought to the forefront of public administrative theory and research. Waldo emphasizes the need for more focus on what types of norms, values, and behaviors contribute to how the three branches of government shape the modern American administrative state and the processes of democratic governance it engages. As Gary Wamsley (1990) observed more than two decades ago, public administrators make the most influential decisions when they acquire as much information as possible. The same holds true for the intellectual development of our field. The fundamental reason that democratic-constitutionalism and the rule of law form the foundational bedrock of public administration is precisely because over time constitutional principles and values become institutionalized in our everyday lives as citizens. This institutionalization is publicly reflected through shared norms, expectations, and values that define rights, create public and private space, and establish multiple forms of mutual accountability (Newbold, 2014). As such, it is not just court cases and laws that we must examine and understand, but it is the institutionalization of broad constitutional tradition that requires us to incorporate and rely on sociology, the arts and humanities, and the natural sciences to help explain how these values reflect and change the public meaning of citizenship, roles, and expectations, all of which govern the relationship between leaders and followers, government and citizens, public agencies and the individuals they serve (Newbold, 2014, p. 17). The Constitutional School of U.S. Public Administration works to createthe space needed for scholars and practitioners to come together and analyze, debate, refute, and create common understandings that are focused on a variety of topics relating to democratic-constitutional traditions. It also helps us to explain how and why our values and preferences for governance might be changing. Not everyone has to agree with the perspectives ofthis school of thought regarding which democratic norms and values should inform practice and how. The field does, however, have to take the Constitutional School seriously. It deserves to be engaged substantively and intellectually. For as James Madison noted more than 200 years ago in Federalist 51: “The interest of the man must be connected to the constitutional rights of the place” (Cooke, 1961, p. 349). The Constitutional School anchors public administration precisely where the American framers wanted it to reside-within the rule and philosophy of law.

There have been concerns about democratic backsliding in many countries around the world. A new research agenda, identifying the impact of democratic erosion on public administration – and whether public administration can act as a firewall to democratic backsliding – has arisen as a result. The relationship between public administration and democracy has often been a source of ambiguity, however. The article argues that the relationship depends upon the concept of democracy that is used. Using a maximalist real democracy approach, good public administration is argued to be an essential component of democracy – rather than an adjunct. Indicators of good public administration quality are developed and patterns of quality are mapped around the world. The article provides a general model of public administration reform connecting political leaders’ attempts to enact executive aggrandizement and bureaucratic resistance into a wider political context. It then develops five clusters of causal linkages between public administration and other aspects of democracy which frame the inquiry of the special issue ahead.