Conference Agenda

Why is it necessary to strengthen democratic governance for better public policy?　In Japan, there are two backgrounds. First, in the face of pandemics and other crisis management, Japan, which used to have harmonious intergovernmental relations, is about to add a centralized element, such as the creation of a national directing authority, with conflicts of opinion in policy coordination between the national and local governments. In this context, we are faced with the challenge of designing a multilevel democracy in a poly-crisis society.

Secondly, resource constraint has become a key concept, as a declining population is expected to constrain the availability of human resources and tax revenues in local communities. On the other hand, however, the rapid social change such as a development of digitalization is having a significant impact on the way the local government operates. The way in which civil service administration, local councils and citizen participation respond to this situation will determine trends in democratic governance.

For this reason, this panel will consider the common issue of strengthening democratic governance and what changes are required to achieve this objective. Four topics will be addressed for specific consideration in Japan.

A. How should the inter-governmental relations for crisis management need to be designed?

B. How should the contemporary civil service system be designed?

C. What reforms of local councils should be undertaken through digitalization and other initiatives?

D. What kind of citizen participation system is required in a decision-making process of local administration in?

The Panel will discuss what democratic governance can be in response to the changing contemporary society, and it will provide Europe with the experience of Japan, a country with advanced administrative issues, to contribute to the contemplation of public policy.

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.

Présentation de la table-ronde :

Les pouvoirs publics ont, à travers les politiques publiques et les moyens de l’administration, entamé les différents chantiers, inséparablement scientifiques et politiques, de la transition écologique, tels que les politiques climatiques (réduction des émissions et adaptation), la protection de la biodiversité, la transition énergétique (décarbonation et électrification), l’économie circulaire, la permaculture, la sobriété, l’aménagement durable du territoire (artificialisation des sols et densification), la gestion intégrée des eaux, etc.

Les défis sont nombreux, épineux et d’apparence inextricable, à la fois dans les diagnostics et la recherche de solutions : la disproportion des échelles d’action, les inerties des dépendances de sentier, l’ampleur des transformations et des mobilisations nécessaires, la disparité des temps, individuel, démocratique, écologique et administratif, les cloisonnements sectoriels et institutionnels, la diversité des points de vue, les jeux politiques et géopolitiques. Tous les sujets de droit sont concernés, voire des parties prenantes non présentes (générations futures, populations éloignées), et bénéficient ou contribuent conjointement, souvent de manière indiscernable ou incertaine, aux causes ou conséquences de ces actions. De manière plus immédiate, les chaînes de valeur étendues des biens et services -voire leur intersectorialité- imposent la cooptation de la gouvernance (privée) des entreprises et des secteurs économiques ou encore de la mobilisation, et parfois de l’auto-organisation (les “communs”) des citoyens et des consommateurs, comme un acteur clé de ces transformations sociales et économiques émergentes.

Les administrations publiques, centrales comme territoriales, ont donc été chargées de transformer l’impensable et l’impossible d’hier et d’aujourd’hui, non seulement en pensable et en possible, mais également en réalisations administratives durables pour demain.

Depuis la mission « Adaptation au changement climatique » de l’UE (H2020), aux Plans action climat nationaux, et aux agendas 21 des collectivités, un grand foisonnement de dénominations recouvrent les différentes « climatisations » de l’action publique (Hrabanski et Montouroy 2022), dont les politiques en faveur de l’environnement, les politiques publiques de transition écologique, la politique climatique, les politiques d’atténuation du changement climatique, politique d’adaptation au changement climatique, etc. On constate d’ailleurs, à travers l’Europe et le monde, une grande diversité des approches empiriques, avec deux grandes composantes : l’atténuation (limiter l’impact des activités humaines sur le climat et l’environnement) et l’adaptation (limiter les impacts des évolutions du climat sur les sociétés humaines et l’environnement).

Cette table ronde est appelée, en première intention, à effectuer un point d’étape : avec le progrès des savoirs et des mises en œuvre, comment les diagnostics de ce qui est possible et (encore) impossible ont-ils évolué dans les politiques de transition écologique ? Comment se déplace au fil du temps le caractère inextricable, épineux (« wicked ») des problématiques environnementales ? Elle s’interroge ensuite sur les réussites de mise en œuvre des politiques publiques sur lesquelles on peut prendre appui, et sur les défis nouveaux de ces mises en œuvre. Enfin, à l’heure où des objectifs de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre toujours plus ambitieux sont annoncés, la politique climatique est encore à la recherche des moyens qui lui permettraient d’atteindre ces objectifs. Dans le dialogue entre les administrateurs, consultants et chercheurs, vers quels sujets les sciences sociales, et tout particulièrement le management public, devraient-ils tourner leur regard à ce stade pour mieux dialoguer avec les acteurs de ces politiques, administratifs, sectoriels, sociaux, et proposer des apports plus percutants au besoin d’accélération des effets de ces politiques ?

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

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.

n 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:

1. 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.
2. 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.