Democracy, public administration, and democratic backsliding

There have been concerns about democratic backsliding in many countries around the world. A new research agenda, identifying the impact of democratic erosion on public administration – and whether public administration can act as a firewall to democratic backsliding – has arisen as a result. The relationship between public administration and democracy has often been a source of ambiguity, however. The article argues that the relationship depends upon the concept of democracy that is used. Using a maximalist real democracy approach, good public administration is argued to be an essential component of democracy – rather than an adjunct. Indicators of good public administration quality are developed and patterns of quality are mapped around the world. The article provides a general model of public administration reform connecting political leaders’ attempts to enact executive aggrandizement and bureaucratic resistance into a wider political context. It then develops five clusters of causal linkages between public administration and other aspects of democracy which frame the inquiry of the special issue ahead.