Throughout the world there have been claims and concerns about democratic erosion (Bermeo 2016; V-Dem 2023). According to many indicators, the third wave of democracy petered out early in the century and a global democratic recession is underway.

Despite the prominence of the issue and growth in academic literature, the relationship with public administration has been under analysed (see: Bauer et al. 2021).  Public administration involves the design, delivery and evaluation of public policies at the local and national (but also supranational) level. The quality of public services, economic prosperity as well as human well being are all dependent on the quality of public administration.  Policies can often be designed and implemented with professionalism, the use of expertise and citizen input. But they can also encounter problems of corruption, inefficiency and inequality.  The potential erosion of democratic standards and norms could potentially weaken and erode public administration quality worldwide – causing citizens with poorer experiences a result.  However, public bodies may have also proven to be a barrier to democratic erosion.

This special issue will consider all questions on the relationship between democratic quality and public administration, including, but not limited to:

• Conceptual papers:
  • What is the conceptual relationship between key terms such as democratic quality, public administration quality, technocracy and populism?
• Causal empirical papers:
  • How has democratic backsliding effected public administration, public services and principles of good governance?
  • To what extent has poor public administration been a driver of democratic backsliding?
• National case studies:
  • What strategies have political leaders and would be autocrats used to erode professionalism in public bodies?
  • How have populist political parties behaved in office? 
  • Have the civil service and public officials acted as accelerants of backsliding? Or have they acted as protectors of democracy, democratic standards and election  quality?  What have their responses been to attempt of democratic erosion?

Papers should follow be between 6,000-9,000 words in length and be submitted through the main Policy Studies portal by 1 October 2024. They will be considered and published on a rolling basis so early submission is encouraged.  Authors are encouraged to contact the editor, Toby James (t.s.james@uea.ac.uk) to notify him of their intention to submit, in order to assist with the planning of the special issue.

Bibliography

Bauer, Michael W, B Guy Peters, Jon Pierre, Kutsal Yesilkagit, and Stefan Becker. 2021. Democratic backsliding and public administration: How populists in government transform state bureaucracies (Cambridge University Press).

Bermeo, Nancy. 2016. ‘On democratic backsliding’, Journal of Democracy, 27: 5-19.

V-Dem. 2023. “Democracy Report 2023: Defiance in the Face of Autocratization.” In. Gothenburg: V-Dem Institute.