ABSTRACT This study examines the interplay between digital modernization and transformation in the public sector, challenging the notion that they are mutually exclusive strategies. Through interviews with public sector leaders, we find that modernization and transformation can be jointly implemented rather than managed as competing efforts. Thus, we highlight hybrid strategies that integrate both approaches, allowing public organizations to balance operational stability with innovation in their overall digital evolution. Our findings offer practical insights for practitioners seeking to align system structures, methodologies, and procurement strategies with the realities of digital change. For scholars, this article lays the groundwork for future research on how modernization and transformation can co‐evolve in public administration, thus challenging existing dichotomies and opening new avenues for investigation.

ABSTRACT The personal background and traits of top organizational leaders matter for organizational strategies, policymaking, and outcomes. Drawing on upper echelons theory, imprinting theory, and scholarship on managerial decision‐making and the transferability of private‐sector management approaches to the public sector, this study examines the relationship between US governors' top business experience and budgetary outcomes. Competing hypotheses are proposed and tested to assess whether governors with significant business experience enhance or hinder budgetary outcomes. Using a panel dataset of 48 states spanning 1960–2010 and a regression discontinuity design, the analysis finds that electing governors with high‐level business experience leads to improved budget equilibrium during their terms. These findings suggest that governors with business backgrounds are likely to be better able to align revenues with expenditures, thus reducing deviations from the budget. The results are robust across alternative model specifications and offer critical theoretical and practical insights into leadership dynamics and fiscal governance.

ABSTRACT Despite its importance in theory and practice, little is known about whether, how, when, and for whom a collaborative governance strategy achieves socially equitable outcomes. Using a staggered difference‐in‐differences design and data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we analyze how well Oregon counties that adopted collaborative governance bridge racial disparities in healthcare access compared to non‐adopting counties. We find that collaborative governance is associated with reducing racial and ethnic disparities in financial barriers to visiting a doctor after 3 years of implementation and that such effects grow stronger over time. In addition, the estimated effect of collaborative governance on having a personal doctor is greatest for Hispanics. This article points to potential benefits of a collaborative governance strategy that designs and scales collaboration through a collaborative platform and collaborative governance regimes, sustains long‐term efforts to meet health equity goals, and identifies and serves the most vulnerable populations.

ABSTRACT The “racist cop” stereotype is one of the most prominent social representations of law enforcement in the United States. Drawing on theories of stereotype threat and stigma, this article suggests that this negative stereotype creates an identity threat that heightens anxiety and stress among law enforcement officers, increasing the risks of their burnout. Using survey data collected from officers in a state‐level law enforcement agency in 2021, we find that White officers, as well as those who reported greater stress during the 2020 protests, express stronger concerns about being perceived as racist. These concerns are associated with elevated levels of burnout, and efforts to maintain a positive self‐image partially mediate this relationship. These findings hold even after controlling for burnout levels reported by the same officers in 2019. Overall, our results extend stereotype‐threat research to a high‐power public service context and underscore the need for organizational interventions that reduce stereotype‐related stress and support officer well‐being.

ABSTRACT Administrative burdens are deliberate policy choices, as governments can proactively design rules and procedures to shape burdens experienced by citizens. While existing research has examined the effects of burden reduction strategies, less is known about the factors driving burden reduction actions at the local level. This paper investigates why city governments adopt streamlining ordinances to reduce burdens in permit service delivery, focusing on the electric vehicle charging station permitting process. Using data from 482 California cities between 2015 and 2023, we find that cities with stronger fiscal capacity, more climate‐concerned, and whiter populations are more likely to institutionalize burden reduction practices in streamlining ordinances. Contrary to expectations, neither mass political ideology nor political leader (mayoral) partisanship has a significant impact on municipal permitting reforms. Our findings demonstrate how capacity constraints, distributive politics, and policy‐specific constituency preferences jointly shape local governments' willingness to reduce burdens in public service delivery.

ABSTRACT Ad hoc commissions are well known in policymaking, yet their strategic deployment during crises remains less understood. This study examines how governments rely on expert commissions to manage blame and political risk in response to critical events. I argue that while commissions facilitate blame avoidance, their use is constrained when delegating authority to experts poses greater risks than benefits. Using logit models on longitudinal data from Chile (1990–2022), I assess how critical events affect commission appointments. The study draws on a novel dataset constructed through archival research and develops an original indicator of critical events using billions of media records from Google Jigsaw's Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT). The findings reveal a conditional logic: high presidential disapproval and frequent critical events are associated with greater use of commissions, whereas sustained or severe events are linked to lower use. These results suggest that the deployment of expert commissions as a blame avoidance strategy is conditional on governments' political risk calculus.

ABSTRACT The nature and epistemological foundations of Public Administration (PA) have long been debated, primarily by scholars from the Global North who draw on their own historical and institutional contexts. Recently, leading international journals in Public Administration have increasingly and proactively incorporated the experiences of Global South countries, recognizing the diversity and heterogeneity in how PA is understood and taught. However, these contributions often stop short of engaging with the deeper epistemological and ontological tensions within the PA discipline's intellectual development. This article aims to represent how the Chilean PA community engages the field‐discipline tension through the qualitative analysis of 18 interviews with directors of undergraduate PA programs. The findings highlight a dual challenge: first, a limited understanding of the intellectual traditions shaping PA, which hinders its consolidation as a discipline; and second, a fragmented discourse on interdisciplinarity that lacks coherence and strategic integration. The study contributes to broader discussions on the identity of PA in the Global South.

ABSTRACT Increasing environmental complexity and uncertainty have made organizational resilience a key concern in public administration. Yet its inherent ambiguity calls for a systematic examination of its conceptualizations, operationalizations, and applications. This meta‐narrative review synthesizes 49 studies, advancing the discourse by identifying three distinct narratives—maintenance, recovery, and adaptability—and exploring how they intersect when public institutions encounter acute shocks versus slow‐burn disturbances. Our analysis further identifies networking and collaboration as the most frequently studied antecedents of resilience, followed by digital technology and leadership. Resilience outcomes are also highlighted—continuous service delivery, enhanced public policy value, and strengthened institutional identity. A key epiphany emerges: Resilience is not merely about responding to crises but also about embedding strategic principles into long‐term governance—balancing top‐down authority with decentralized decision‐making to functionally and structurally address short‐term needs and long‐term transformation. We conclude by identifying implications for research, practice, and education.

ABSTRACT President Trump altered the U.S. federal civil service system by reducing merit‐based protections for bureaucratic expertise and expanding the scope of political appointments, shifting the balance long established under the Pendleton Act of 1883. Similar reforms have occurred at the state level with moves to at‐will employment. These shifts raise questions about what shapes public support for merit system protections. Using data from the 2023 Cooperative Election Survey, we examine how public service motivation (PSM), political knowledge, and ideology influence support for political neutrality and protection from political coercion. We find that political knowledge and PSM are positively correlated with favorable perceptions of current merit system protections. Interestingly, there is no significant association between ideology and support for merit protections. These findings suggest that informed and motivated citizens are more likely to support meritocratic principles, highlighting the need for public education on merit systems' role in sustaining democratic governance.