Public Governance Series

The EGPA 2024 Conference, scheduled to take place in Athens, Greece, from September 3 to 6, 2024 is thrilled to announce some key highlights of the programme. This year’s theme, "Strengthening Democratic Governance for Better Public Policies and Services," will guide the discussions and sessions throughout the event.

Held in close cooperation with Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences and various local and international partners, the event promises to be an engaging and insightful event for public administration academics, researchers, and practitioners. The conference will feature a range of activities, including plenary sessions, thematic seminars, Permanent Study Groups (PSGs) sessions, and various side meetings.

The EGPA 2024 Conference will start on September 3, 2024, with the EGPA Symposium for PhD Students and Junior Researchers (only for PhD Students with accepted papers for the Symposium) followed by the EGPA side meetings. The plenary sessions, panels, and Permanent Study Groups' sessions will be organised from 4 to 6 September. 

The programme is available at https://www.conftool.org/egpa-conference2024/sessions.php 

KEY PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS

Plenary Session I - Opening Ceremony  

Strengthening Democratic Governance for Better Public Policies and Services.
The opening session will be dedicated to the Conference theme: "Strengthening Democratic Governance for Better Public Policies and Services". The opening ceremony will be open by Deputy-Minister of Interior in charge of Public Administration, Ms. Vivi Charalaboyianni, who will address the audience at the beginning of the plenary session after the official addresses of the representative of Panteion University and of the leadership of EGPA/IIAS. Prof. Dimitri Argyriades will provide the audience with some considerations and views on the evolution of this cutting-edge topic followed by the Keynote speech by Dr Marcel Guenoun from a practitioner point of view.  The session will develop into a debate with our distinguished audience of scholars from all European countries, a debate that Prof Dr Eymeri-Douzans will chair as EGPA President.

Plenary Session II

Public Administration and the Future of Democracy
The rise of authoritarian populism poses a significant threat to liberal democracy, challenging its core principles of openness, deliberation, and pluralism, as well as the integrity of its key institutions. As populist illiberal forces seize executive power, they erode the fundamental values of the liberal democratic model. This trend presents an unprecedented challenge to democratic public administration. In response, the panel will explore the future of public administration as an academic discipline and public management as a practical endeavor in an era where liberal-democratic orders are undergoing profound transformation.

The plenary session II will be chaired by Prof Dr Michael Bauer and the following academics, scholars and experts will provide us with their point of views:  Dr Paraskevi Ant. Dramalioti (Secretary General of Coordination at the Presidency of the Government, Greece) , Prof Dr Eva Sørensen (Professor of Public Administration and Democracy, Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, Denmark), and Prof Dr Benoît Rihoux (Full professor in political science at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium)

EGPA Permament Study Groups

The different EGPA Permanent Study Groups Co-chairs are preparing the program of their sessions with more than 520 selected papers : the PSG 1 on e-Government will address the following themes : Teaching Digital Governance; and Generative AI in Public Services; the PSG 2 will focus on Public Sector performance and its future challenges; the PSG 3 will centre its discussions on the importance of the context for people management; the PSG 4 on Regional and Local Government will focus attention on the tensions that are arising between long-established, governmental structures and new, potentially disruptive issues – such those resulting from demographic change, new service demands, migration, climate change and the rise of artificial intelligence.   

The PSG 5  on the Management of Policing will address several problems as the legitimacy, equity, power, authority, governance and organizational performance in policing; the analysis of organizational functions such as strategic planning, human resource management, budgeting and evaluation, coordination of operations, control of accountability of policing, cooperation with public and private partners; whether and how policing is value-creating or value-destroying in different settings and social environments; changing roles and expectations of police at points of political and societal change.  

The PSG 6 on GPSO will focus the Democratic Governance of Public Sector Organizations and identify new trends and challenges. 

The PSG 7 on Ethics and Integrity will focus on the ways of making ethics and integrity work from the institutional framework to patterns of work. 

PSG 8 will address the Driving Impactful Change through Citizen Participation in Public Governance, Policies and Services. 

The PSG 9 on Teaching Public Administration will discuss three issues : teaching PA and Management for SDGs, supporting professional development with MPA & MPM program, the role of education, and the role of teaching Public Administration for strengthening democratic institutions and processes.
The PSG 10 will focus on key topics as the up-to-date recent challenges in administrative remedy systems in a digitalised world.

The PSG 11 will address challenges related to the main Conference theme as : How strategic management and strategizing in government can strengthen democratic governance, and vice versa, how strategy and strategizing has been or are used to undermine democratic governance; How democratic governance impact strategic management in government.

The PSG 12 on Public Sector Financial Management will focus this year on the theme of the Public Financial Management as a Banner for Democratic Governance in the era of SDGs.

The PSG 13 on Public Policies will address the Modes of Service Delivery and Street-Level Behaviour amidst Contemporary Societal Challenges

The PSG 15 on Public Administration, Technology and Innovation (PATI) will focus on State Capacities and Capabilities for Societal Transformations.

The PSG 16 on Public Marketing and Communication will focus on the analysis of marketing and communication strategies and tools adapted by public organizations and more widely by public policies and services. 

The PSG 17 on Sociology of State and Resilience in close cooperation with the COST-Action Programme CoRex will offer a platform for discussing the theme of  Questioning the Reign of the Entourages. Ministerial cabinets, policy advisers, and collaborators of the Executive within the European Union and more specifically : the contributions proposed for Athens will focus on an in-depth study of the actual role and effective power of presidential, prime-ministerial, and ministerial advisers pertaining to the Core Executive entourages, so as to validate, invalidate or redesign the general hypothesis of a growing reign of the entourages.

The PSG 18 on Justice and Court Administration will address the following topics: e-Justice, Justice and AI, selection of Judges, Justice administration and politics/society as well as Court administration etc.

The PSG 19 on Collaborative Networks and Social Innovation has invited papers promoting ideas, experiences, and knowledge related to the evolving field of collaborative networks and their potential for driving social innovation practices and public service delivery. The PSG 20 dedicated to the analysis of welfare state transitions with a special attention to societal, political and professional changes and offers a platform for discussing the use of evidence through the different stages of welfare policies, starting from policy design and ending in policy implementation by professionals and community actors. 

The PSG 21 on Policy Design and Evaluation will address the theme: Public Policy Design, Evaluation, and Democratic Quality in the city of Athens often labelled as the ‘cradle of democracy’. Against this backdrop, this year’s workshop focus theme will be centered on the intersection between aspects of (non-) democratic contexts and policy design and evaluation.

The PSG 22 on Behavioral Public Administration (BPA) will have sessions focussing on How BPA Can Help Solve Real-world Problems. In order to erase discrimination and foster diversity, many various instruments (both normative and best practices) may be suitable. In such polyhedric context, strengthening democratic governance may be strategic, to ensure better public policies and services. The topics of democracy and participation by the citizens in public governance is pivotal especially for the protection of fundamental rights and the implementation of equal treatment. It is fundamental as well, in the perspective of the enhancement of a new approach to diversity as strategic opportunity for the improvement of administrative action. The PSG 23 on Administration, Diversity and Equal Treatment will focus on the various ways and instruments to erase discrimination and foster diversity in PA. 

There will be sessions of special tracks on The Executive State and on Independent Administrative Authorities.

Panels and Special Sessions

Panel

Meet the Editors
Organized at the initiative of Prof. Dr. Sabine Kuhlmann, Editor in Chief of the International Review of Administrative Sciences (IRAS),  this panel will aim to provide with brief introductions to the journals/series pertinent for academics, scholars and practitioners from the disciplines and then discuss further questions regarding the publication process such as: tips for successful publications, how to cope with reviews and to react to critique, frequent mistakes in the submission/revision process; how to draft developmental reviews and other important aspects of the publication strategy.

The panel will be chaired by Prof. Dr Andrew Massey and will gather Editors of various key Journals.

IRAS has also curated a special online collection of articles, focusing on the EGPA Conference theme: "Strengthening Democratic Governance for Better Public Policies and Services." This compilation brings together a diverse range of research and perspectives from leading experts, offering valuable insights into the critical issues surrounding democratic governance and its impact on public policy and service delivery. The journal is offering free consultation of this collection during EGPA 2024, providing attendees with valuable insights and resources to deepen their understanding of the topics discussed.

IRAS Special Selection: https://iias-iisa.org/filemanager/media-resource/download/177/

Panel 

The contribution of the Humanities to Public Administration 
There seems to be a gap in the current research (and practice) in Public Administration about the major contribution the humanities can and ought to make to the advancement of public administration and public governance. While social sciences such as political science, public policy, sociology, management, social psychology and others are part and parcel of the ‘administrative sciences’ – and their contribution is reflected in the workings of corresponding EGPA Permanent Study Groups investigating the contribution such disciplines can provide to the administrative sciences - the contribution the humanities can furnish to the development of the field of PA appears to have been overlooked, or at the very least not to have been developed in a systematic way across the humanities.
The (re-)discovery of the humanities for the field of PA may be beneficial to the progress of the field in a number of ways.

The aim of this panel is to draw attention to this gap, examine in a critical and integrated way the contribution that can be provided by the humanities for the development of Public Governance and Public Administration, and discuss possible ways forward to bring the humanities (much) more systematically into Public Administration, and how EGPA may contribute to this endeavour.

The chairperson of this panel will be Prof. Dr. Edoardo Ongaro (The Open University, UK).

ResPA Panel

Inclusive and Transparent Policy-making in a Digital World
The Discussion panel will focus on the following indicative topics:
•    To present current practices from the Western Balkan region in using digital tools for more inclusive and transparent policy-making.
•    To identify challenges and barriers in using digital tools in policy processes.
•    To discuss future trends and innovations in policy-making, such as using behavioral insights to help design better policies

The digital revolution is reshaping governance and policy-making processes worldwide. Digital tools and technologies offer unprecedented opportunities to enhance inclusivity and transparency in policy-making, fostering greater civic engagement, accountability, and trust in government institutions. This panel discussion aims to explore the current landscape, challenges, and best practices associated with inclusive and transparent policy-making in the digital age.

Key topics will be addressed by the panelists as: the use of digital tools for civic engagement will be explored, including platforms and applications that facilitate citizen participation in policy-making, how digital technologies can enhance transparency in governance through open data and digital reporting and the challenges and risks associated with digital policy-making, such as the sustainability of digital solutions, internal coordination among government institutions, digital divide etc.

The Chairperson will be Jelena Mrdak, Programme Manager ResPA.

Special Session

Enhancing Skills for Public Administration
In today's rapidly evolving global landscape, the effective functioning of democratic governance relies heavily on the proficiency and adaptability of public administrators. This track proposal seeks to delve into the critical role of skill development in public administration to foster better governance practices and enhance public service delivery.
With a focus on the intersection of theory and practice, the track will explore various dimensions of skill acquisition, application, and adaptation within the context of democratic governance. It will examine the evolving nature of public administration roles and responsibilities in the face of contemporary challenges such as technological advancements, societal complexities, and shifting public expectations.
The discussion will center on key research questions, including an exploration of the fundamental skills and competencies that public administrators need to navigate the complexities of democratic governance. Participants will delve into the nuances of effective policy formulation and implementation, considering the importance of interdisciplinary approaches and stakeholder engagement in decision-making processes.

The chairpersons will be : Dr Komseli Foteini (Fani) (Chair) (National Centre for Public Administration & Local Government/INEP and Hellenic Open University, Greece) and Dr Bourbouli Angela (Co-chair) (National Centre for Public Administration & Local Government/INEP, and  Hellenic Open University, Greece).

MethodsNET-EGPA Workshop

Enhancing Your Case-Based Methodological Toolbox with Flexible Approaches to Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA)

Convenors:

Prof. Benoît Rihoux, UCLouvain (Belgium) and MethodsNET Chair

Asst. Prof. Anka Kekez, University of Zagreb (Croatia) and MethodsNET Vice-Chair

In Public Administration research and beyond, the ‘case-based’ approach offers multiple options -from single-case to small-N to intermediate-N designs- as well as diverse data types and analysis toolboxes. Navigating these options can be challenging, and researchers often resort to ‘simple, established recipes’ or use toolboxes that may not fit their research context. This workshop will address how to flexibly enrich your case-based methodological toolbox by exploiting emerging options for designs incorporating Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and for coding in Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA). For each, we will propose strategies that enable researchers to leverage both established and emerging options in an effective way:

• How to build a robust mixed- or multimethod design incorporating QCA? There are several, flexible ways to sequence single-case analyses with QCA, including designs where QCA serves as a modest complement or extension.
• How to contextualize and manage data work within various designs of case-based research? Several versatile methods are applicable across diverse theoretical and empirical contexts, including various forms of thematic and content analysis, allowing researchers to tailor qualitative data analysis to the specific demands of their research.

Additionally, we will introduce MethodsNET, the Methods Excellence Network, (https://methodsnet.org ), a newly established global membership-based association dedicated to providing access to cutting-edge research methods training, facilitating methods development and innovation and promoting pluralism in research methodologies. We will highlight upcoming events, including our Launch events from 30 October to 2 November 2024 (https://methodsnet.org/launch-events/ ), at UCLouvain, Belgium, and the services and resources being developed by MethodsNET.

Panel

Coordination of Public Policies in the Context of Effective Democratic Governance: Failures and Advantages

This panel integrates collaboration with COST Action CA20123 Intergovernmental Coordination from Local to European Governance-Working Group 3.

The effectiveness and legitimacy of democratic governance in modern States depend crucially on their coordination ability. There is still a serious lack of knowledge among scholars and practitioners on how to organize and process intergovernmental coordination in those various instances. Coordination, vital for organizational efficacy, involves aligning efforts toward common goals. Despite challenges, it's crucial for governance and successful development initiatives (Bouckaert et al., 2010; Trein et al., 2021). Public administration scholars emphasize its significance (see in Bouckaert, Peters, & Verhoest, 2022). Effective coordination necessitates synchronizing policy formulation and action within public financial management frameworks. National development strategies must ensure policy coherence by aligning with financial management frameworks. Proper coordination among public organizations at the national level enhances efficiency and facilitates successful implementation of development policies and programs, fostering progress and sustainable governance. Achieving coordination between executive actors of territorial units is one of the major challenges of today's politics (Begum, & Momen, 2019; Peters, 2018). External effects and thus the interdependence of political actions beyond borders of sovereign authority have increased dramatically, necessitating better coordination of decision-making and actions across territorial units as well as across levels of government in an increasingly complex environment (Peters, 2015). Marume and Jaricha (2016) present coordination as the synchronization of efforts, but conceptualize it from both positive and negative perspectives. On a positive note, it means bringing about cooperation and teamwork among the persons and units of an organization. But in negative terms, it means removing conflicts, values, inconsistencies, overlapping, and working at cross-purposes among persons or units of an organization. Hence, the above conceptualization with respect to coordination makes it clear that coordination is much more than cooperation of one person with another or others toward a common goal (Marume and Jaricha, 2016).

This panel aims to delve into the intricate dynamics surrounding policy coordination, exploring its implications for effective democratic governance. By scrutinizing both failures and

advantages, we seek to unravel key insights into optimizing policy coordination mechanisms within democratic frameworks.

The aim of the panel is:

• to critically assess the factors contributing to failures in policy coordination within democratic governance frameworks.
• To identify strategies and best practices for enhancing policy coherence, collaboration, and alignment across diverse stakeholders.
• To elucidate the role of policy coordination in bolstering democratic governance, fostering public trust, and advancing societal well-being.

Chairs:

• Anna Uster, PhD, is a lecturer in the Division of Public Administration and Policy Department of Political Science, The Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel, Israel. Her research focuses on local governance, central-local relations and local network collaboration and co-production with citizens.
• Judit Kalman- an Assistant Professor at Corvinus University Budapest, specializes in political science and economics, focusing on public policy, political economy, governance, public finance, and welfare state issues. She also provides occasional policy consultancy. Her research covers EU Cohesion Policy, local governance in Hungary, and various labor market policy topics. judit.kalman@uni-corvinus.hu

Moderator:

• Andrius Puksas, is Doctor of Law (J.D.) from Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania, his research concentrates on Civil Law, Public Administration, and Educational Management. andrius.puksas@gmail.com

Presenters:

• Ruben Tamboleo: “The struggled coordination in Spain: between integration and differentiation”.
• Maria Ferreira: “Mainstreaming European Public Policies as an Exercise in Policy Coordination: Case-studies from the European Commission”.
• Andrius Puksas: "Exploring the Impact of Policy Coordination Triggers and Obstacles in Lithuanian Governance Practices".
• Anna Uster and Judit Kalman– "Exploring Coordinative Fatigue and Benefits in Successful Youth At-Risk Policies: A Comparative View Between Israel and Hungary".

Panel

Engaged Research in Public Administration: Do it & Publish it

This panel continues the joint initiative of ASPA and EGPA started a year ago in Belgrade and will feature cases of engaged research in public administration and a dialogue about strategies for publishing such research. Panelists will be invited to share their experience with communities and practitioners, with the aim of exploring what it means to be an engaged researcher in our field. The discussion will also highlight recommendations for positioning engaged research within the broader literature. Invited editors will point to strategies and good examples of efforts to justify and explain engaged research methods to a broader audience of prospective peer reviewers and journal readers. The panelists will be invited to share common pitfalls and recommendations for responding to peer and editorial comments.

Chairs:

Prof Carissa Slotterback, Dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (USA)

Prof Diana – Camelia Iancu, Professor and Dean of Public Administration at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration - SNSPA Bucharest ( Romania).

Moderator: Călin Hintea, Chair of the Accreditation Committee EAPAA, Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania

Speakers :

Prof Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans (EGPA President, ScPo Toulouse),

Prof. Ringa Raudla (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia)

Prof. Ian C. Elliott (Centre for Public Policy, University of Glasgow)

Prof. Alisa V. Moldavanova (Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware).

Panel (Special Session under PSG 17 : Sociology of State)

Presidentialization and Effective Government

Prof. Vincent Martigny & Prof. B. Guy Peters

A common assumption in international political science, supported by the publication of an influential book edited by Thomas Poguntke and Paul Webb (The Presidentialization of Politics, OUP, 2005), is that the powers and prominence of chief executives have increased in the world's democracies, whether presidential or parliamentary. This idea, encapsulated in the concept of 'presidentialization', has given rise to a particularly rich new field of research into governance and political decision-making. While the existence and extent of presidentialization is contested (Dowding, 2013), the term does describe the increasing centrality of chief executives–presidents and prime ministers–in politics and government of many, if not most, countries around the world.  This shifting toward greater executive power has potentially major effects on democratic government, and on the balance of institutional forces with the State.

Although the concept of presidentialization does include a concern about the extent to which the Prime minister or President attempts to control the public service, it has had relatively little concern with the way in which the State functions, and the effectiveness of the public service in delivering policies to the public. To the extent that it does, the presidentialization literature tends to equate compliance with the wishes of the executive with good performance by the public service. We might therefore hypothesize that presidentialized systems to perform better, given the presence of a more unitary executive, and a clearer strategic approach to governing.  Alternatively, we might expect more presidentialized systems to perform more poorly, given the loss of the “frank and fearless” advice of a more independent public service.

This panel will investigate the relationship of presidentialization to government performance in several European countries and in the US. While presidentialization was partly motivated by the desire to show the public that the government is capable of governing, we will try to understand whether it may also have generated the opposite criticism of a government indifferent to intermediary bodies, starting with its own administration, as well as the checks and balances generated by the rule of law, resulting in poorer policy outcomes. The general approach to the question will be to look at changes within the cases themselves across time, and then to compare the cases. Doing this will enable a better understanding of the mechanisms through which executive politics influences policy making and policy outcomes.

INVITATION

We encourage all interested scholars, practitioners, and researchers who have not yet registered for the EGPA 2024 Conference to do so and join us in Athens for this pivotal event.

Please note that the conference programme may be updated with additional details, so stay tuned for the latest information.

We look forward to welcoming you to Athens!