Democracy, public administration, and democratic backsliding

Abstract

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.