Traditionally, the relationships of politics and public administration has been at the heart of public administration scholarship. Nevertheless, contemporary turbulent times – migration, the rise of populism and democratic backsliding, or Brexit and the integration fatigue just to name a few factors – put the dichotomy of this relationship into question, with empirical research suggesting that politicization is on the increase. At the same time, complex conditions and external and internal pressures call for elected and recruited leaders that would be able to navigate our political systems through times of change while ensuring the reliability of state institutions; nevertheless, the roles, tasks and values of top public officials have not traditionally been associated with change. Participants of TED2020 therefore addressed top public officials and the nature of their work: their careers, expertise and experience; their competencies, values, roles and practices including the interface between politics and public administration; as well as their impact on delivery, public value, and the institutional architecture of the state especially in the context of policy and management crises.

 

Programme topics:

Session 1: Career paths: Who are top public officials and where do they come from?
Session 2: Tasks and practices: What do we empirically know about what top public officials actually do?
Session 3: Professionalization vs. Politicization
Session 4: Policy advice: Where does policy advice come from?
Session 5: Accountability and legitimacy: How is the politics-administration dichotomy changing?
Session 6: Public value: What is the role of top public officials in delivering and communicating public value?