THE POLIBIUS PROJECT Building networks of knowledge in Public administration

1. THE POLIBIUS PROJECTBuilding networks of knowledge in Public administration Higher education & practice International cooperation & MEDA Carlos Conde Martínez, Universidad de Granada, Spain

2. REINFORCING THE LINK BETWEEN PA AND KNOWLEDGE • KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES: “Institutionalized forms of production, dissemination and use of information and analysis about Public Administration” • IDENTIFICATION OF RESOURCES… • Where is knowledge about public administration? • How is this knowledge produced, disseminated and used? • … AND ACTION • BETTER KNOWLEDGE: Improving research, education and training through international cooperation

3. Academic institutions The output Education for life Academic research producing principled theory The approach (disciplinary) PA as law PA as social science Public administration (institutions) Public policy (processes and outcomes) Public management (resources) Governance (social networks) Other: local government, regional studies, public finances... Driven by supply The institutional setting From isolation to intensive networking Professional schools The output Training for practice Applied research solving problems The approach (practical) New techniques Professional skills Reactive to demand Institutional setting (Increasingly pluralistic and diversified) Centralized governmental institutions De-centralized training and consulting organizations (local governments, associations, foundations…) Private companies and recently privatized agencies Academic institutions related touniversities KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES ON PA

4. EDUCATION vs. TRAINING • Traditional higher education is based in disciplines and principled theory • Usual professional training is limited to techniques, skills and oriented to the position • However: • Problems are not about disciplines, but about facts. If universities persist in discipline and theory, how responding to cases? • The scope of practical perspective is very limited, it can provoke important mistakes by not taking into account factors that are not grounded in practice • Does training provide with contextual knowledge? • Does training provide with critical thinking?

5. RESPONSES • Better links between education, research and the profession • Practitioners in academia • Applied research and consultancy • Internships • Supply of in service training • New pedagogical approaches to teach PA • Less organization, more process • Less bureaucracy, more governance • Less standardization and generalization, more difference • Teaching contingency • Adaptation and transfer • Less lecturing, more student-engaging work • New degrees structure and educational strategies • The role of master • Joint modules and programs • Longlife learning • But don’t reject academic tradition! • University provides graduates with intellectual capacities for life • Academic timing is different to public administration timing • Freedom to develop new concepts and “telling the truth to power” is a crucial social need

6. Learning Public Administration: tendencies • The content: technical management + democratic governance • PA is composed by a set of techniques and procedures (legal, financial…) • PA is an actor within the political system (policy options) • PA makes part of the social structure (public services) • The approach: from bureaucracy (PA commands and controls) to network (PA negotiates and mediates) • The focus on hierarchy is challenged by tendencies to privatization, contracting out, decentralization • Increased accountability modifies the target: the point is not how the state works, but how a public problem is solved • Multidisciplinary approaches • Empirical focus • Connection with research

7. POLIBIUS PROJECTREINFORCING ACADEMIC RESOURCES IN THE FIELD OF GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION

8. POLIBIUS PROJECT • Goals • Identification and evaluation of academic resources in the field of governance • Elaboration of an action plan to reinforce these resources through systematic, institutional andprofessional academic cooperation • Cases: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria • Method • Calendar: March 2005 – April 2006 • Elaboration of Terms of Reference for national surveys • Research at national level • Transnational evaluation of the situation • Design and implementation of an action plan

9. SITUATION IN MEDA • The actors • Public, private and international institutions • The role of government in PA higher education and research • Big divide between the Anglo-American tradition and the French tradition • Administrative Law (Maghreb) • Management (Mashrek) • Little attention to public administration and policy from social sciences perspective • Exceptions: elite institutions not connected to national public administrations • The research deficit • Formalistic approaches to PA • Absence of empirical academic culture • Lack of applied research, universities do not respond to governmental needs • The social divide • Mass / elite institutions

10. EVALUATION • Big challenges in the area of new forms of governance • Networks of public service delivery • The role of citizens/civil society institutions in governmental affairs • Management under conditions of public accountability • Mistmach between academic supply and policy/practitioner demand in good governance • Limited diversification of programs and expertise • Social divide • Research deficit • Limited production and dissemination • Lack of empirical culture

11. NEEDS • Programs • Curriculum development: new programs and courses • Empirical orientation of education • Quality assurance • Training of trainers • Research • Transnational networks • Young researchers training • Dissemination of research • Developping methodologies for transfer and adaptation • Reinforcing consultancy capacities and applied research • Impact of higher education • Relations with the professional world, linking professional schools and universities • Challenging the social divide: inclusive strategy, quality for all

12. INITIATIVES • Reinforcing research • Journal of Public Administration • Network of young researchers • Workshop in EGPA annual conference • Links with the profession • Participation in the network of national schools of PA • Intensive training program for officials and scholars • Academic development • Platform for joint curriculum development • Quality assurance

13. REFERENCES • European Public Administration Network materials, available at http://bl.ul.ie/epan/ • Polibius Project, an Inventory of Academic Resources in the Field of Governance and Public Administration in the Mediterranean Region (Tempus Meda SCM M014A04) • Bogason, Peter – Brans Marleen, “Making public administration teaching and theory relevant”, EGPA Annual Conference, 2005.

14. Thank you!Merci!Sucran!¡Gracias!