Workshop on “Bureaucratic Aversion to Criticism International Perspectives amid Populism and Polarisation

Veranstaltungsart
Workshop

Ort / Datum
Bonn, 15.05.2025 bis 16.05.2025

Veranstalter

German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)

Hosted by the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), the workshop offers a unique opportunity for a select group of scholars researching bureaucratic politics to discuss work in progress in a collegial Chatham House setting.

The workshop’s objective is to explore bureaucratic aversion to criticism across common boundaries of disciplinary scholarship. Bureaucracies face particular challenges in acknowledging and learning from public and internal criticism (Esser & Janus, 2023; Hood, 2011; Kühl, 2014; Lægreid, 2014). At the same time, some bureaucracies are known to have increased their effectiveness by not just analysing successes but also mistakes and failures (Dekker & Hansén, 2004; Dunlop, 2017; Perrin & Tyrrell, 2021). We seek to better understand the reasons for both reluctance to and acceptance of criticism.

Our goal is to create an intellectual space for exchange and learning by drawing on sociological, politi-cal, and psychological theories and juxtaposing findings from a wide variety of national and interna-tional settings. Our focus lies on (1) empirical research examining (2) public-sector organisations and (3) their responses to public and internal criticism.

We are particularly interested in analyses that consider the current context of populism and political polarisation and how they affect bureaucratic (non-)responses to criticism. We embrace comparative approaches and are confident that such perspectives will crystallize further in situ. We are particularly interested in work that speaks directly to any of the following questions:

  • How do public organisations address public criticism and/or internal criticism? To what extent is public criticism sought, considered, mitigated or ignored, and why?
  • What role do individual bureaucrats play in this context? Which implicit and explicit strategies do organisations and bureaucrats deploy in this context?
  • Does public criticism enhance, diminish, or have no measurable impact on the effectiveness of public organisations? Is criticism itself a facet of organisational effectiveness?
  • Under what conditions do public organisations use evidence to change practices even when this requires admitting that past approaches were less than optimal or appropriate?
  • How do public organisations navigate incentives for and against learning from failure? Are there cases of organisational learning from failure that allow for cross-contextual application?

 

Agenda

The workshop comprises seven individual paper sessions, all following the same format: a twenty-minute presentation by the author, two rounds of prepared comments (ten minutes each), and up to twenty minutes of discussion involving all workshop participants.

Day 1, 15 May

Welcome

Workshop Objectives and Introduction of Participants
Chairs: Daniel Esser, Heiner Janus and Tim Röthel

Ben Christian – Dissent from Within: The Criticism Dilemma in International Organizations
Nilima Gulrajani and Mallory Compton
Plenary discussion
Chair: Stefan Leiderer

Chelsea Chou – Creating an “Independent Viceroy” for Central Bureaucracies: How Blame Avoidance Works in China
Catherine Weaver and Wenyan Tu
Plenary discussion
Chair: Barbara Nunberg

Coffee Break

Daniel Esser – A Glasshouse with Iron Curtains: Understanding Bureaucratic Responses to Failure in Bilateral Development Assistance
Mallory Compton and Stefan Kühl
Plenary discussion
Chair: Nilima Gulrajani

Joint Reflection on Insights and Remaining Questions from Day 1
Chairs: Daniel Esser, Heiner Janus and Tim Röthel

Day 2, 16 May

Neomi Frisch-Aviram – Artificial (Lapse of) Intelligence: Mechanisms of Public Workers' Stress When Encountering an AI-Made Administrative Error
Guillermo Toral and Ora-orn Poocharoen
Plenary discussion
Chair: Werner Jann

Coffee Break

Ran Ran – Strengthening Environmental State Capacity, Shifting the Blame: The Paradox of Authoritarian Environmentalism in Rural China
Wenyan Tu and Barbara Nunberg
Plenary discussion
Chair: Mark Theisen

Joint Lunch

Heiner Janus and Tim Röthel – Foreign aid transparency amid public criticism
Catherine Weaver and Nilima Gulrajani
Plenary discussion
Chair: Rafael Leite

Per Laegreid – I’m a Survivor: Political Dynamics in Bureaucratic Elites’ Partisan Identification
Ora-orn Poocharoen and Guillermo Toral
Plenary discussion
Chair: Stefan Kühl

Coffee Break

Synthesis and Discussion
Chairs: Daniel Esser, Heiner Janus and Tim Röthel

End of Day 2

 

Hinweis

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