The study of climate change: the need to “bring the state back in”

Abstract

How to address a “super wicked problem” like climate change is not only a policy sciences discussion but also a public administration one. Surprisingly, climate change has received little attention from the public administration field and public policy literature has given marginal attention to the role of the state apparatus in climate action. Especially, at the local level where it is crucial to address most of the adaptation agenda. This a serious problem since Latin America faces an especially challenging situation since the organizational capacity at the local level in the public sector is poor. State apparatuses with a low organizational capacity to process the complexity of certain public policies may distort and even ruin well-designed climate policies. Furthermore, empirical research on the role of public administrations in addressing climate change at the local level, despite its importance, remains extremely limited. Much of the discussion focuses on the design of policies to achieve this goal. If the organizational capacity of the agencies of the state is built only around specific policies to address very local challenges, we will miss the fact that they are tied up with systemic and intractable organizational practices and capacities. To examine the organizational capacity at the Latin American public sector local level to address climate challenges is as important as designing technically accurate policies and the debate on state capacity can shed light on how to do so. Finally, this article aims to open an agenda for research and a claim for local action.