The international conference Public administration reform and administrative capacity today: What is at stake? A stocktake of PA research and a research agenda will take place on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 November 2024 at Aula M, Palazzo Wollemborg (Via del Santo 26, Padua).

The initiative will address a wide range of issues related to the functioning and reform of public administration and to administrative capacity building: from defining and measuring administrative capacity, to responses to crises and conditionalities, from the challenges of digitalisation and AI to those linked to new populisms and democratic backsliding.

The conference pursues a twofold goal: on the one hand, to present the research lines and findings produced so far within the #CAPIS Observatory, and on the other, to outline future questions and research directions, with a view to possible European collaborative calls.

Programme

Thursday, 21 November 2024

• 13:30 – Registration

• 14:00–14:30 – Institutional greetings, welcome and introductions

  • Sergio Gerotto, Director, Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies, University of Padua

  • Laura Polverari and Paolo Graziano, #CAPIS Observatory, University of Padua

• 14:30–15:15 – Opening speech: Laura Polverari
  Public administration and administrative capacity today: What is at stake? Purpose of the conference and a research agenda

• 15:15–16:45 – Panel: PA reform, administrative traditions and capacity building: Concepts, definitions and measurements
  Chair: Cristina Zerbinati, University of Padua

  • Marlene Jugl, Bocconi University – Rethinking administrative traditions

  • Anna Persson, University of Gothenburg – The state as a politically constructed idea: implications for PA-oriented reforms

  • Kai Wegrich, Hertie School of Government – The political economy of administrative capacities

• 16:45–17:15 – Coffee and tea break

• 17:15–18:45 – Panel: Public administrations dealing with crisis
  Chair: Maria Stella Righettini, University of Padua

  • Sabine Kuhlmann, University of Potsdam – Institutional designs and dynamics of crisis governance at the local level: European governments facing the polycrisis

  • Stella Ladi, Queen Mary University London / Panteion University – A sequence of crises: what reforms for public administration in Greece?

  • Valentina Mele, Bocconi University – How can cross-sector arrangements enable impact communities to problematize and improve government action?

• 18:15 – Guided tour of the historical Palazzo Bo (speakers only)

• 19:30–22:00 – Conference dinner (speakers only)

Friday, 22 November 2024

• 09:30–11:00 – Panel: The determinants of administrative capacity
  Chair: Giorgia Nesti, University of Padua

  • Ugo Fratesi, Politecnico di Milano – Measuring administrative capacity: the missing link between inputs and outputs

  • Eva Thomann, University of Konstanz – Drivers and implications of bureaucratic overload

  • Mattia Casula, University of Bologna – Policy growth, bureaucratic overload and policy implementation

• 11:00–11:30 – Coffee and tea break

• 11:30–13:00 – Panel: The politics of public administration reform: populism and politicisation of the public administration
  Chair: Arianna Giovannini, University of Urbino

  • Michael Bauer, EUI, School of Transnational Governance – PA standing up against democratic backsliding

  • Sean Kippin, University of Stirling – Positive public administration and territorial decentralisation

  • Eliska Drapalova, Berlin Social Science Centre WZB – Easier said than done: Populist parties’ effect on local public administration in large cities

• 13:00–13:30 – Conclusions and action points: Paolo Graziano

Organised with the patronage of the Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies, University of Padua (1924–2024).

Scientific Committee: Paolo Graziano; Laura Polverari; Cristina Zerbinati

I lavori si svolgeranno in lingua inglese.

Le iscrizioni al convegno sono chiuse.

Program #CAPIS International Conference 21-22 November 2024