PA — 2026-04-12
Original Does Digital Transformation Rely on Collaborative Dynamics? A Case Study on the Italian Public Digital Strategy
Lorenzo Costumato, Andrea Bonomi Savignon, Fabiana Scalabrini, Luigina Paglieri
PMR — pp. 1-30 2026-04-10 Original When autonomy backfires or succeeds: curvilinear effects on innovative behaviour in the public sector and the moderating role of transformational leadership
PMR — pp. 1-33 2026-04-09 Original When boards connect during challenging times: exploring the link between nonprofit board interlock and expenditure reduction
Jeongyoon Lee, Junoh Jeon
GOV 39/2 2026-04-08
Original From the Administrative Presidency to Personalist Consolidation: Trumpism and Executive Control of the Regulatory State
William G. Resh
Abstract
ABSTRACT This essay investigates the evolving relationship between Trumpism and the United States regulatory state, focusing on how Donald Trump has reshaped American administrative governance to one of personalist consolidation. Drawing on scholarship of the administrative presidency, I argue that Trumpism represents a strategic fusion of structural deregulation in sectors like environmental protection, energy, and finance with robust state intervention in domains tied to a right‐wing populist definition of national sovereignty. Trumpism reflects a personalist style of governance rooted in the exploitation of institutional tools of the administrative presidency that have developed across both Democratic and Republican administrations over the past century. By situating Trump within the broader institutional evolution of executive power, I highlight how his manipulation of the regulatory state entrenches executive dominance and preserves an illiberal reform in governance through electoral legitimation paired with the erosion of liberal‐democratic accountability standards in administration.
GOV 39/2 2026-04-07
Original When the Regulatory State Meets Populism: Regulatory Agencies in Mexico
Mauricio I. Dussauge‐Laguna, Martin Lodge, Daniel Daza‐Vázquez
PA — 2026-04-07
Original Rethinking Reproductive Governance: What Can Public Administration on the Island of Ireland Learn From Abortion Accompaniment?
Anna Theresa Schmid
Abstract
ABSTRACT The recent decriminalization of abortion marked a crucial step toward improved reproductive care on the island of Ireland. However, this has not translated into fully accessible abortion provision—barriers, including inaccessible services, persist, leaving gaps that public administration has not formally addressed. In response, informal actors, particularly abortion accompaniers, may continue playing a critical role in enabling care. Drawing on asynchronous online discussions with 19 individuals who accompanied abortions over the past decade, this article examines how accompaniment operates not merely as individual support but as a structural necessity that illustrates alternative futures for abortion administration. The analysis demonstrates how accompaniment assumes a quasi‐administrative function, helping individuals navigate bureaucratic systems and compensating for shortcomings in formal provision. It also highlights how accompaniment embodies alternative models of care, rooted in demedicalization and reproductive justice. I outline key learnings for public administration: rethinking abortion governance as a system that centers on accessibility and dignity, learning from accompaniment to design community‐based services, and eliminating bureaucratic barriers to create more equitable abortion care. Current accompaniment practices are not simply a workaround for legal and medical failures but an indicator of systemic shortcomings—offering a blueprint for more accessible reproductive health care that truly serves the public.
PA — 2026-04-07
Original Fighting Corruption Through Accountability? A Survey Experiment
Ming‐feng Kuo, Hsini Huang
Abstract
ABSTRACT Democratic Weberian bureaucracy is facing great challenges upholding public values as we see turbulent party politics disrupt merit‐based systems, causing bureaucrats' goal displacement and conflicting compliance under multiple accountability mechanisms. Using vignette experiment design, 555 Taiwanese public employees were surveyed to explore how legal, administrative, and social accountabilities influence the perception of black, gray, and white corruption. While respondents accurately identified corruption severity, accountability reminders diminish ethical judgments and are ineffective in explaining whistle‐blowing intention. The study revealed that organizational positions interact differently with accountability reminders in a Weberian bureaucracy. Findings highlight the need to cultivate ethical judgment to shift from external controls to trigger greater perceived accountability to combat corruption. This study sheds light on both felt accountability and corruption theories to reflect existing anti‐corruption strategies.
APSR — pp. 1-17 2026-04-07 Original Bureaucratic Resistance and Policy Inefficiency
KUN HEO, ELISA WIRSCHING
Abstract
Poor public service provision creates an electoral vulnerability for incumbent politicians. Under what conditions can bureaucrats exploit this to avoid reforms they dislike? We develop a model of electoral politics in which a politician must decide whether to enact a reform of uncertain value, and a voter evaluates the incumbent’s reform based on post-reform government service quality, which anti-reform bureaucrats can undermine. Bureaucratic resistance for political leverage is most likely to occur when voters are torn between the reform and the status quo. Resistance lowers the informational value of government service for voters and can lead to policy distortions and accountability loss. When reform is moderately popular, resistance leads to policy inefficiency by preventing beneficial reforms due to electoral risks and inducing ineffective reforms by offering bureaucrats as scapegoats. Our model identifies a distinct mechanism of bureaucratic power and its implications for policy and accountability.
PAR — 2026-04-06
Original Toward a Theory of Value as Praxis: Linking Public Values and Public Value
Bishoy L. Zaki
Abstract
ABSTRACT Literature on value developed along two influential interpretations: public values as normative expectations about policymaking and governance and public value expressing added or lost benefits experienced through public action. Although normatively linked, these interpretations evolved as separate streams, limiting conceptual clarity and cumulative analysis. In response, this article develops “value as praxis” as an analytical framework that treats the relationship between public value and public values as a translation‐and‐mediation process. It specifies how public values travel from articulation and prioritization to encoding within rules and resources, embedding in organizational and sociotechnical arrangements, enactment in design and implementation, and eventually experiences of “value” or “disvalue” in the form of benefits and burdens. The framework illustrates this translation‐and‐mediation process across five recurring process groups (families of mechanisms): institutional , regulatory , sociotechnical , design , and learning . It offers a basis for studying value creation, destruction, and disvalue, and for diagnosing where the translation of public values into public value breaks down across contexts and populations.
APSR — pp. 1-19 2026-04-06 Original State-Building in the City: An Experiment in Civilian Alternatives to Policing
CHRISTOPHER BLATTMAN, GUSTAVO DUNCAN, BENJAMIN LESSING, SANTIAGO TOBÓN