I am doing a series at the moment called the kāwana series. The kāwana series is for those who want to understand the work of the executive better. It focuses on the tension between democracy and bureaucracy, including how and where the lines between politics and public management are drawn. This is an enduring debate—it’s…

I’m doing a series at the moment called the kāwana series. The kāwana series is for those who want to better understand the work of the executive. It focuses on the tension between democracy and bureaucracy, including how and where the lines between politics and public management are drawn. This is an enduring debate—it’s not…

Over the next few weeks, I will offer a few frameworks for those of you wanting to better understand the work of the executive. This is the first one. These are high-level introductions only. But I will link you to the primary scholarship. Public Sector Bargains are the explicit and implicit agreements between public servants…

In political theory, the so-called modern democracies are said to legitimatise authority through a ladder of delegated powers. In theory, voters and their communities are the principals; they are regarded as sovereign and vote for representatives who are supposed to carry out their will. Those representatives become legislators, and it is the job of those…