Education
Education outputs
Conceptual paper
This note develops the concept of democratic anchorage as an analytical lens for assessing how administrative reforms contribute to the legitimacy of public governance. It expects that reforms are democratically anchored when they are designed and implemented in liberal-pluralist formats, i.e., participatory in design, inclusive and transparent in execution, and normatively aligned with widely shared democratic values. Rather than treating legitimacy as an automatic by-product of technocratic performance, democratic anchorage analyzes empirically the role of participatory structures, procedural mechanisms, and narrative justifications that “hook and bind” administrative change to democratic norms and structures. The concept of democratic anchorage is thus advanced as both a normative benchmark and a testable empirical framework for evaluating the legitimacy of public governance through administrative reform.
Report
Public administration reforms (PARs) are frequently justified by the expectation that they will enhance citizens’ trust in government and strengthen the legitimacy of political and administrative institutions. Yet, despite decades of scholarly and policy attention, systematic,
comparative, and empirical evidence on the relationship between PARs and citizens’ perceptions of legitimacy remains limited. This paper presents a systematic literature review of empirical studies examining how administrative reforms influence legitimacy perceptions, following PRISMA reporting standards. The review synthesizes findings from diverse reform contexts to assess whether and under what conditions such reforms bolster political trust and perceived legitimacy. By mapping the scope, direction, and conditionality of observed effects, the study identifies key evidence gaps and conceptual ambiguities.
Video
What is representative bureaucracy and why is it important for the legitimacy of the public sector? In this knowledge clip we explore the concept of “symbolic representation” and how it can contribute to better citizen outcomes and to bureaucracies that are trusted more. With examples from policing, education, and recycling services we explore the opportunities and limitations of symbolic representation. This knowledge clip as part of a wider series that will also cover the concepts of passive and active representation.
Visualisation
The RADAR Innovation Dashboard presents key insights from a new dataset of public sector innovations developed by the Hertie School as part of a work package for the RADAR project. The dataset covers 1,710 cases across 42 countries, over two decades, and across various government levels. Cases are drawn from several sources, such as best-practice datasets and public sector awards. The dashboard displays key information about the individual cases, including country, policy field, year of creation and level of government, and is available to the public via the RADAR website.
Video
What is representative bureaucracy and why is it important for the legitimacy of the public sector? In this knowledge clip we explore the concept of “passive representation” and how it can contribute to better citizen outcomes and to bureaucracies that are trusted more. This knowledge clip is part of a wider series that will also cover the concepts of active and symbolic representation.
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Education highlights
The RADAR project had a successful kick-off event from 17-19 February 2025.
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What we do
The RADAR project combines
- rigorous research and analysis from top public administration research departments with
- the teaching and training infrastructures of (national) Schools of Government that will function as knowledge brokers
to bring science to policy through high-level conferences and to train public officials to foster innovation and reform while deepening democratic governance.