Africa

Readings and class materials for Tuesday, April 4, 2023

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.

  • Pablo Yanguas and Badru Bukenya, New Approaches Confront ‘Old’ Challenges in African Public Sector Reform,” Third World Quarterly 37, no. 1 (January 2, 2016): 136–52, https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2015.1086635.

  • 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.

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

  • Review of public administration outside of the OECD + modernization theory

  • African public administration

    • Tapscott, “Overcoming the Past and Shaping the Future.” and Yanguas and Bukenya, New Approaches Confront ‘Old’ Challenges in African Public Sector Reform.”
    • Brierley, “Unprincipled Principals.”
    • 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.”