Publics, Policy and Public Services (PPMN90035)

During the twentieth century and the first decade of this century new ways of thinking about the relationship between governments and their citizens have emerged. These developments have in part been a reaction to the strict application of managerial approaches which dominated public administration in the US, the UK and Australia beginning in the 1980s. It also partly reflected a deeper concern regarding the apparent decline in citizens’ attachment to and respect for the practice of politics. This subject will provoke a wide ranging discussion about the role of ‘publics’ (citizens, users, communities etc) in public policy and public services. The emergent paradigm of citizen-centred governance, sometimes called Government 2.0, is networked, collaborative and flexible, with service delivery arrangements which are personalised, choice-based and delivered through multiple channels. This subject will critically examine the theoretical underpinnings of this emergent paradigm and assess its utility in theory and practice, as well as other unconventional approaches to policy making such as behavioural economics and randomized controlled trials, through academic (Aaron Martin) and practitioner (Yehudi Blacher) perspectives. The course will include conversations with practitioners who have sought to re-think the way they have led their organisations to make them more responsive to the needs of their clients. The subject will also draw on a number of local and international case studies.