The modernization of public administration is a recurring theme on the political and public agenda in many countries. Modernization presupposes innovation. However, is an innovative public administration a contradiction in terminis? If we look at the practice of public administration, and...

1. Introduction: living in a world of images -- 2. Visual events and visual technologies: a brief historical overview -- 3. The power to visualize -- 4. Visual events and the policy process -- 5. Research strategy -- 6. Agenda setting: setting the wheels in motion -- 7. Policy design and...

Street-level bureaucrats implementing public policies have a certain degree of autonomy - or discretion - in their work. Following Lipsky, discretion has received wide attention in the policy implementation literature. However, scholars have not developed theoretical frameworks regarding the...

<title>Abstract</title> Nowadays, public policies often focus on economic values, such as efficiency and financial transparency. Public professionals often resist implementing such policies. We analyse this using the concept of ‘role conflicts’. We use a novel approach by conceptualizing and measuring role...

<title>Abstract</title> Today, many public professionals feel estranged from the policy programmes they implement; that is, they experience ‘policy alienation’. This is of concern as, for satisfactory implementation, some identification with the policy is required. We conceptualize policy alienation based...