The New Labour government made a great song and dance about “evidence based policy”, which was generally observed more in rhetoric than in reality. But to be fair to them, their period in office did see a big increase in knowledge about “what works” and “what performs” in government, even if they didn’t always (often?) act on it. Continue reading “Learning in Government – not: the decimation of knowledge”
Author: Prof. Colin R Talbot
Professor of Government (Emeritus), University of Manchester
Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge Judge Business School
Western Universities Helped Ferment the Arab Revolt
Over the past couple of decades, tens of thousands of students from (usually autocratic) Arab states have attended universities in Britain, America and other western countries. On a smaller scale, many western universities have also run all sorts of training and education programmes in these same states. Continue reading “Western Universities Helped Ferment the Arab Revolt”
Religion and Soft Power redux
I got the following question from a student in Turkey, about a post I made some time ago about religion and “soft power”, and specifically why Joseph Nye seemed to ignore it. My reply is below. Continue reading “Religion and Soft Power redux”
Teaching Public Service and Non-Democratic Regimes
Never mind measuring happiness, how about the misery index?
In the 1970s the US economist Arthur Okan came up with the concept to measure the social costs of simultaneous high inflation and unemployment, until then a relatively unknown phenomena. The idea is simple – add together the unemployment rate and the rate of price increases as a measure of how much ‘misery’ the people are suffering. Read the full story on False Economy blog
Cuts in Canada – the real story
I’m in Toronto as a guest of Social Planning Toronto – the real Big Society! I spoke at their annual conference yesterday, and at Ryerson university the day before. Continue reading “Cuts in Canada – the real story”
Teaching Public Administration to Tyrants? The LSE, Libya… and me.
The London School of Economics (LSE) has gotten into hot water over links it has to the Gaddafi regime, including some executive education courses it has been running there.
Confession time: I taught part of one the modules on the LSE run programme for aspiring Libyan civil servants a couple of years ago.
Continue reading “Teaching Public Administration to Tyrants? The LSE, Libya… and me.”
‘AV Leads to 2nd Best’ – You Should Know Mr Cameron
As the AV referendum campaign gets seriously under way the prime Minister has weighed in against AV. He said that “the principle of one person, one vote is what makes our democracy fair. AV flies in the face of that.” He went on to claim that AV can lead to getting the second best candidate elected and used a rather clumsy analogy with a 100 metres race. Continue reading “‘AV Leads to 2nd Best’ – You Should Know Mr Cameron”
The Laddie is for Turning?
David Cameron is starting to get something of a reputation for screeching hand-brake turns that leave observers, and many of his MPs, with their heads spinning. Continue reading “The Laddie is for Turning?”
Big Society and Egypt: be careful what you wish for, Mr Cameron
The level of self-organization exhibited by the Egyptian revolt has been stunning. The day after ousting Hosni Mubarak they turned up in Tahrir Square armed not with placards but brooms and paint brushes to clear the place up! Yet another example of the Egyptian Big Society in action. Continue reading “Big Society and Egypt: be careful what you wish for, Mr Cameron”
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