 In the current issue of Governance,
Fred Thompson
reviews
Hive Mind
by
Garett Jones
. "Jones sets out to explain why higher cognitive ability scores are so much more important for collectivities than for individuals." It might be the year's most important economics book, says Thompson. Read the review.
Oliver Stuenkel reviews
Sailing the Water's Edge: The Domestic Politics of American Foreign Policy by
Helen Milner and
Dustin Tingley. The book shows how "the president's ability to obtain his desired foreign policy depends on negotiations with Congress, as well as public opinion and interest group support. This matters far more than mainstream IR literature recognizes." This is an important contribution to the debate about US foreign policy, Stuenkel says.
Read the review.
And
Tanu Kumar reviews
Contesting the Indian City, edited by
Gavin Shatkin. Each chapter "is carefully researched and paints a vivid picture of life and politics in an Indian city." But the broader theoretical contributions "remain unclear"
Read the review.
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In Westminster systems, senior public servants have traditionally avoided overtly political roles. Some critics have alleged that recent public sector reforms have undermined that tradition of impartiality. In the current issue of Governance
Before Brexit there was the global financial crisis. In the current issue of
Governance,
Katherine Dommett,
Muiris MacCarthaigh, and
Niamh Hardiman examine how the GFC changed ideas about the organization of bureaucracy in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The conventional Westminster model stressed centralization and ministerial control. The conventional model was weakened because of NPM-style reforms. But the authors find that the GFC caused another swing of the pendulum. Austerity drives resulted in "efforts to reassert central government oversight." But the authors find that the end result was not simply a restoration of pre-NPM practices. Rather, it was a more nuanced process of "negotiated governance."
In the current issue of
Governance,
Evert Lindquist and
Chris Eichbaum argue that studies of Westminster systems need to expand their view beyond the relationship between politicians and public servants. The Westminster model also includes "tacit bargains" between ministers and caucuses, and between governments and the general public. Canada did not undertake reforms as radical as other Westminster systems. But the Harper government (2006-2015) did upset the status quo, often provoking strong resistance. Lindquist and Eichbaum
