Online Publications

• Narrative Policy Analysis

  Narrative Policy Analysis

  Published as:

  Rhodes, R. A. W. (Ed.) (2018)  Narrative Policy Analysis: cases in decentred policy. (London: Palgrave Macmillan).

  Introduction

  Policy analysis provides information, evaluation, advice and advocacy for policy makers and is typically a species of naturalist or ‘scientific’ or positivist social science. It has some distinguished proponents, including Yehezkel Dror (1968), Harold Lasswell (1971) and Aaron Wildavsky (1980). Among the multitude of definitions, Hill (2015: 5) is representative. He distinguishes between analysis of the policy process and analysis for the policy process. The former is descriptive and analytical seeking to explain the origins of policy and how it was implemented. The latter is prescriptive using the analytical techniques often associated with economics to provide information and evaluations for policy makers.

  Latest Revision: 2018-07-04 Comments Off on Narrative Policy Analysis

• Towards an Interpretive Parliamentary Studies

  Towards an Interpretive Parliamentary Studies

  Published as:

  Geddes, M. and Rhodes, R. A. W. ‘Towards an Interpretive Parliamentary Studies’, in Jennifer Brichzin, Damien Krichewsky, Leopold Ringel, and Jan Schank  (Eds.) The Sociology of Parliaments. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

  Introduction

  This chapter argues the case for an interpretive approach to parliamentary studies in the UK and beyond. The chapter begins with a summary of the traditional institutionalist approach to, and the debates that have preoccupied scholars studying, the UK Parliament. The second section turns to the contribution from new institutionalism before outlining in the third section a growing interpretive approach that focuses analysis on the ideas, beliefs, practices and traditions that constitute Parliament. Finally, we illustrate the case for an interpretive approach by reviewing briefly some of the few studies in this idiom. The chapter concludes that the interpretive trend is positive because it enhances the diversity of parliamentary studies, both within the UK and beyond. It broadens the research agenda, diversifies the toolkit for studying parliaments, and creates stronger links to wider debates in political science.

  Latest Revision: 2017-08-07 Comments Off on Towards an Interpretive Parliamentary Studies

• THE THEORY AND PRACTICE of GOVERNANCE: the next steps

  The Theory and Practice of Governance: the next steps

  Published as:

  ‘The Theory and Practice of Governance: the Next Steps’, China Journal of Public Administration. Paper to the international conference celebrating 30^th anniversary of the Chinese public administration profession on ‘Modernization of National Governance and Innovation of Public Policy, sponsored jointly by Wuhan University, the Chinese Public Administration Society and the American Society of Public Administration, Wuhan University, 21-23 October 2016.

  Introduction:

  In the 2000s, the New Public Governance (NPG) became prominent (see Osborne 2010; Rhodes 2017a) and this article takes stock of developments in studying governance. There are two much discussed waves of governance; network governance followed by metagovernance. There is now an emerging third wave – decentred governance. This article describes each wave and its weaknesses, arguing for a bottom-up approach to the study of governance that uses storytelling as its main method of data collection. It describes ways of collecting and analysing stories. It ends with a warning. The local knowledge encapsulated in stories about governance is ‘shifty’, and can be rejected by central policy makers because it does not fit with their expectations.

  Latest Revision: 2017-07-19 Comments Off on THE THEORY AND PRACTICE of GOVERNANCE: the next steps

• ‘Understanding Governance’: 20 years on

  ‘Understanding Governance’: 20 years on

  Published as:

  Rhodes R.A.W. ‘Understanding Governance: 20 Years On’, ‘领导科学论坛·国家治理评论’ (丁煌 translator) National Governance Review 5: 2016: 5-17.

  Introduction

  A world-famous rock band once sang ‘It was twenty years ago today …’, and it is 20 years ago that I wrote Understanding Governance. In 2017, Renmin University Press will publish a translation of the book, and this event is my excuse for revisiting the book for a second time (see: Rhodes 2007).

  Latest Revision: 2017-07-19 Comments Off on ‘Understanding Governance’: 20 years on

• Can experience be evidence? Craft knowledge and Evidence-based policing

  Can Experience be Evidence? Craft knowledge and Evidence-based policing

  Published as:

  Rhodes, R. A. W., and Jenny Fleming. “Can experience be evidence?: craft knowledge and evidence-based policing.” Policy & Politics (2018).

  Available@: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tpp/pap/pre-prints/content-pppolicypold1600061r3

  Abstract
  This article explores the debate surrounding the use of evidence in police decision making. It asks what varieties of knowledge are drawn on by the police when making decisions. Specifically, we ask what experiential knowledge is and why it is relevant to police decision-making. First, we survey briefly official government policy to show that evidence based policymaking is the dominant paradigm for the UK’s government’s policy making in general and in policing specifically. Second, we discuss the limits to social science knowledge in policymaking. Third, to move beyond the science versus experience debate, we explore the notion of experience and identify four ideas entwined with the notion of experience: occupational culture; institutional memory; local knowledge, and craft. Fourth, we use these terms to provide a thematic analysis of focus groups drawn from four UK police forces. This case study enables us to identify the varieties of knowledge the police draw on. We show that police officers weave together the several sources source of knowledge. They draw on any knowledge that helps them do their job, whether it is their craft knowledge, their assessment of the organizational and political context in which they work, or research-based knowledge. Fifth, we explore the limits to experiential knowledge. Finally, we conclude that experience is crucial to evidence-based policing because it is the key to weaving the varieties of knowledge together. We argue for a systematic approach to collating local, political and organizational knowledge with research-based evidence into a wider evidence base. We do not argue against evidence-based policing, only against an exclusive reliance on it.

  Latest Revision: 2017-07-19 Comments Off on Can experience be evidence? Craft knowledge and Evidence-based policing

• Court Politics in a Federal Polity

  Court Politics in a Federal Polity AJPS Submitted

  Published as:

  Rhodes, R. A. W. and Anne Tiernan, ‘Court Politics in a Federal Polity’. Australian Journal of Political Science 50 (4) 2015.

  Available@: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cajp20/current

  Abstract 

  This article uses a case study from Queensland to demonstrate the court politics approach’s potential to reinvigorate executive studies. Court politics focuses on webs of interdependence within the core executive. It examines the beliefs and practices of elite actors and their fluid and contingent relationships. This article examines the relationships and patterns of executive politics that prevailed under the premierships of Peter Beattie and Anna Bligh. It seeks to answer three key questions. First, why is court politics a useful approach to studying the Australian core executive? Second, what is the nature and extent of court politics in Australian state governments? Finally, recognizing that local traditions shape the beliefs and practices of political elites, how does the court politics approach need to be modified for application in Australia? We identify four dilemmas that beset the court politics of Queensland’s central networks: contingency, fragmentation and coordination, the primacy of coping and survival in the calculus of political-administrative elites, the ever decreasing circle of close advisers supporting the leader. We conclude the court politics framework ‘travels’ effectively to the Australian context, but identify some key local differences, namely: the physical location of network members; the greater numbers of partisan staff supporting ministers, and the close and closed relationships among network members developed over the course of long-term governments.

  Latest Revision: 2016-01-10 Comments Off on Court Politics in a Federal Polity

• Focus Groups as Ethnography

  Rhodes Tiernan Focus Resubmitted Final

  Published as:

  Rhodes, R. A. W. and Anne Tiernan, ‘Focus Groups as Ethnography: the Case of Prime Ministers’ Chiefs of Staff’ Journal of Organizational Ethnography 4 (2) 2015: 208-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOE-06-2014-0015

  Available@: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/JOE-06-2014-0015

  Abstract 

  This paper outlines the current state of political and administrative ethnography in political science and public administration before suggesting that focus groups are a useful tool in the study of governing elites. They provide an alternative way of ‘being there’ when the rules about secrecy and access prevent participant observation. Briefly it describe the job of prime ministers’ chiefs of staff before explaining the research design, the preparations for the focus group sessions, and the strategies used to manage the dynamics of a diverse group that included former political enemies and factional rivals. It outlines the approach to analysis and interpretation before reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of focus groups for research into political and administrative elites. It concludes that focus groups are a valuable tool for making tacit knowledge explicit, especially when all participants work in a shared governmental tradition.

   

  It is the first project to use focus groups to study the political elites of Westminster systems let alone Australian government.

  Latest Revision: 2016-01-10 Comments Off on Focus Groups as Ethnography

• Recovering the Craft of Public Administration

  Recovering the Craft of PA final 2015

  Rhodes, R. A. W. ‘Recovering The Craft of Public Administration’, Public Administration Review DOI: 10.1111/puar.12504. Available @: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/puar.12504/pdf

  See also blog on this site.

  Abstract

  Public sector reform has rarely dropped off the political agenda of Western governments, yet the old craft skills of traditional public administration remain of paramount importance. The pendulum has swung too far towards the new and the fashionable reforms associated with new public management and the new public governance. It needs to swing back towards bureaucracy and the traditional skills of bureaucrats as part of the repertoire of governing. This article discusses the skills of: counselling, stewardship, practical wisdom, probity, judgement, diplomacy, and political nous. Although of wide relevance, the article focuses on their relevance of the skills in Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand. It concludes that the next bout of reforms needs to recover the traditional craft skills. It is not a question of traditional skills versus the new skills of new public management or new public governance. It is a question of what works; of what skills fit in a particular context.

   

  Latest Revision: 2016-01-10 Comments Off on Recovering the Craft of Public Administration

• Genre Blurring in Public Administration

  ‘

  Published version: Australian Journal of Public Administration, 73 (4) 2014: 317-30. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8500.12085. Available@: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8500.12085/pdf

  Abstract

  This article seeks to broaden the craft of public administration by ‘blurring genres’. First, I explain the phrase ‘blurring genres’. Second, I provide some examples of early work in administrative ethnography. Third, I compare this early, modernist- empiricist ethnography with interpretive ethnography, suggesting researchers confront three choices: naturalism vs. anti-naturalism; intensive vs. hit-and-run fieldworks; and generalisation vs. local knowledge. After this general discussion, and fourth, I discuss the more prosaic issues that confront anyone seeking to use ethnography to study public administration and look at fieldworks roles, relevance, time, evidence and fieldwork relationships. Fifth, I describe and illustrate the several tools students of public administration can use as well as observation and interviews; namely, focus groups, para-ethnography, visual ethnography, and storytelling. Finally, I conclude that ethnographic fieldwork provides texture, depth and nuance, and lets interviewees explain the meaning of their actions. It is an indispensable tool and a graphic example of how to enrich public administration by drawing on the theories and methods of the humanities.

  AJPA Blurred Genres final copy edited

  Latest Revision: 2016-01-10 Comments Off on Genre Blurring in Public Administration

• Executive Governance

  Rhodes, R. A. W. and A Tiernan (2014). ‘Executive Governance’, in Andrew Massey and Karen Miller (Eds.), International Handbook of Public Administration and Governance. Chelmsford: Edward Elgar, 81-103.

  Executive Governance final

  Latest Revision: 2016-01-10 Comments Off on Executive Governance