Africa

Readings and class materials for Thursday, November 13, 2025

Readings

  •  Chris Tapscott, “Overcoming the Past and Shaping the Future: The Quest for Relevance in Teaching and Researching Public Administration in Africa,” Global Public Policy and Governance 1, no. 4 (December 2021): 468–84, https://doi.org/10.1007/s43508-021-00030-x.

  •  Sarah Brierley, “Unprincipled Principals: Co‐opted Bureaucrats and Corruption in Ghana,” American Journal of Political Science 64, no. 2 (April 2020): 209–22, https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12495.

  •  Martin J. Williams and Liah Yecalo‐Tecle, “Innovation, Voice, and Hierarchy in the Public Sector: Evidence from Ghana’s Civil Service,” Governance 33, no. 4 (October 2020): 789–807, https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12472.

  •  Mai Hassan and Thomas O’Mealia, “Representative Bureaucracy, Role Congruence, and Kenya’s Gender Quota,” Governance 33, no. 4 (October 2020): 809–27, https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12480.

  •  Jacob Moscona, “The Management of Aid and Conflict in Africa,” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 17, no. 4 (November 1, 2025): 228–59, https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20220219.

Article discussion reminder

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™?

Plan for the day

  • Weber, Marx, Dependency Theory, and public administration outside of the OECD

  • Hybrid and heterogenous Latin American bureaucracies

  • Latin American public administration

    • Mariana Chudnovsky, “Latin American Public Administration,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics (Oxford University Press, 2021), https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1426. and Conrado Ramos and Alejandro Milanesi, “A Brief Story of Latin American Public Administration: A Particular Model,” in The Emerald Handbook of Public Administration in Latin America, ed. B. Guy Peters, Carlos Alba Tercedor, and Conrado Ramos (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2021), 9–19, https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83982-676-420201002.
    • Cristina Zurbriggen, “The Dilemmas of Governance in Latin America,” in The Emerald Handbook of Public Administration in Latin America, ed. B. Guy Peters, Carlos Alba Tercedor, and Conrado Ramos (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2021), 375–405, https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83982-676-420201015.
    • Wolfgang Muno and Héctor Briceño, “Autocratization and Public Administration: The Revolutionary-Populist Regime in Venezuela in Comparative Perspective,” Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, January 2023, 1–20, https://doi.org/10.1080/23276665.2022.2148262.
    • Rik Peeters and Sergio A. Campos, “Taking the Bite Out of Administrative Burdens: How Beneficiaries of a Mexican Social Program Ease Administrative Burdens in Street-Level Interactions,” Governance 34, no. 4 (October 2021): 1001–18, https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12534.

  • Modernization theory

  • African public administration

    • Tapscott, “Overcoming the Past and Shaping the Future.”
    • Brierley, “Unprincipled Principals.” + Randomized Response Explained
    • Moscona, “The Management of Aid and Conflict in Africa.”
    • Williams and Yecalo‐Tecle, “Innovation, Voice, and Hierarchy in the Public Sector.”
    • Hassan and O’Mealia, “Representative Bureaucracy, Role Congruence, and Kenya’s Gender Quota.”