While the very existence of community interests has arguably motivated states to engage in multilateral treaty-making, create international organisations and criminalise conduct internationally, ... Show moreWhile the very existence of community interests has arguably motivated states to engage in multilateral treaty-making, create international organisations and criminalise conduct internationally, among other things, the foundational ‘publicness’ of public international law appears largely under-explored among public international lawyers. A turn to publicness is rendered all the more necessary by the blurring divide between public/private, in the face of globalisation processes that have been affecting the way in which public interests, goods and functions traditionally thought to be within the exclusive remit of state sovereignty are defined, negotiated and acted upon by private entities. Looking at ‘publicness’ as an epistemic tool, this contribution critically revisits how private actors engaging with areas of common interest have actually shaped the contours of ‘public’ in a public international law context. It suggests to (re)imagine the ‘publicness’ in order to be able to guide practices instead of being forged by them. Show less
Bekerom, P. van den; Voet, J. van der; Christensen, J. 2020
Citizens’ perceptions of the performance of public service providers are a central concern for academics and policy-makers alike. A growing body of behavioral public administration research... Show moreCitizens’ perceptions of the performance of public service providers are a central concern for academics and policy-makers alike. A growing body of behavioral public administration research emphasizes the psychological biases that shape the perceptions of citizens. This article makes a novel contribution to this debate by examining the interaction between politically motivated bias and cognitive bias in citizens’ performance appraisals. It asks: Are citizens more negative about failing service delivery by public organizations than by private organizations, and if so, why? This is investigated through a survey experiment conducted among a representative sample of 2,623 Dutch citizens. The main finding of the study is that public organizations are punished more severely by citizens for negative performance information than private organizations, but this tendency is concentrated among citizens who have a preference for private service provision and varies across service areas. Our study shows not only that citizens’ processing of information about public services is subject to various forms of bias, but also that these biases interact in shaping how citizens view public organizations. Further investigating these complex dynamics is an important task for behavioral public administration scholars seeking to understand the specific implications of behavioral dynamics for the broad range of organizations providing public services. Show less
The book examines what is understood as the 'publicness' of 'public administration'. The original meanings which are given to the concept of publicness in political and social thought are traced... Show moreThe book examines what is understood as the 'publicness' of 'public administration'. The original meanings which are given to the concept of publicness in political and social thought are traced and reformulated in terms of the study of public administration. Show less
