Rediscovery of bureaucracy and good governance

Readings and class materials for Thursday, September 4, 2025

Readings

Summary vs. synthesis
(Skim) Johan P. Olsen, “Maybe It Is Time to Rediscover Bureaucracy,” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 16, no. 1 (January 2005): 1–24, https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mui027.
Peter Evans and James E. Rauch, “Bureaucracy and Growth: A Cross-National Analysis of the Effects of "Weberian" State Structures on Economic Growth,” American Sociological Review 64, no. 5 (October 1999): 748, https://doi.org/10.2307/2657374.
Francis Fukuyama, “What Is Governance?” Governance 26, no. 3 (July 2013): 347–68, https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12035.
Sören Holmberg, Bo Rothstein, and Naghmeh Nasiritousi, “Quality of Government: What You Get,” Annual Review of Political Science 12, no. 1 (June 2009): 135–61, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-100608-104510.

Check-in and warm-up
How to discuss an article in a seminar
- Who wrote the article? What’s their background?
- General summary of the article
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- How does it connect to other readings?
- How does it connect to the broader course themes?
- How does it connect to current events?
- What does it add to our Global Bureaucracy Toolkit^™?
Why does bureaucracy matter and is it going anywhere?
Defining and measuring governance
- How can we measure abstract concepts like “governance?”
- Evans and Rauch, “Bureaucracy and Growth.”
- Fukuyama, “What Is Governance?”
- Holmberg, Rothstein, and Nasiritousi, “Quality of Government.”
(if time!) How to analyze governance data