2027 Transatlantic Dialogue

April 12-13, 2027 | New Orleans, Louisiana 

The Role of Public Policy and Administration in Shaping Democracy and Promoting the Resilience of Democratic Norms and Institutions

To begin your submission, click here.

Schools of Public Administration were created to both understand and propose novel lines of action in response to the grand challenges of government and society through the application of systematic processes that reflect public service values. While the relationship between Public Administration and Democracy has been discussed for many years, as democratic institutions face growing pressures worldwide, public administrators have increasingly been called on to explicitly articulate the role of the field and its public servants in preserving, protecting, and continuously improving democratic systems. Similarly, recent scholarship has renewed attention to the role of public administration in shaping democratic legitimacy and the resilience of democratic norms and institutions  

In response, the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) invite submissions to the 2027 Transatlantic Dialogue, focused on The Role of Public Policy and Administration in Shaping Democracy and Promoting the Resilience of Democratic Norms and Institutions. The 2027 Transatlantic Dialogue will take place from April 12 to 13, 2027, in conjunction with the 2027 ASPA Annual Conference, at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

We invite papers from a broad range of perspectives that interrogate the role of Public Administration in democracy and illuminate ways in which the tools of public administration can advance democratic systems.  Papers will revisit classic arguments, generate new understandings, identify relevant administrative practices, and pose critical questions relevant to the global context. We encourage contributions focused on all levels of government and multigovernmental systems. Contact Caitlyn Shrewsbury with any questions.

All proposals—for both individual papers and fully formed sessions—are due November 30, 2026.

The following themes are intended to provide an illustrative rather than exhaustive list of related topics. We explicitly welcome contributions addressing other dimensions of the relationship between public administration, public policy, and democracy, including:

• Work that conceptualizes, measures, and compares democratic status and backsliding.
• Comparisons of democratic norms, institutions, and practices between different levels of government and nations.
• Frameworks for defining the objectives of democratic systems such as legal certainty, consistency in public service delivery, local institutional trust, participation, accountability, legitimacy, preserving the rule of law, or other objectives
• Studies that explore the relationship between political power and public administration, including politicization, professionalism, and loyalty in public administration, including relations among elected officials, senior civil servants, and political advisers and their implications for democratic governance.
• Work that explores the linkages between administrative practices and policies and their effect on democratic objectives is welcome, such as:
  • Practices from within government organizations that preserve the rule of law.
  • Studies that explore democracy within public administration, including representation, participation of employees, politics-administration relations, and linkages to democratic outcomes.
  • Explorations of Dialogue and Civil Discourse that examine policy, practice, and pedagogy with attention to effects on the free exchange of ideas within democratic society, spread of disinformation, and selective bias.
  • Explorations of civic engagement and public participation in advancing democratic systems, culture, and inclusive governance.
  • Civic education efforts and their effects on the goal of an informed citizenry.
  • Studies that explore the modern information ecosystem and its challenges and effects on Public Administration and democratic systems, including artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and how digital technologies affect objectives like transparency, accountability, participation, inclusion, administrative responsiveness, public trust, and democratic control.
  • How authority, autonomy, and coordination are structured across levels of government and shape public administration and the quality of democratic governance.
  • The role of evidence and scientific policy advice, including the design of the science/policy interfaces, the legitimacy and accountability of expertise, and the challenges posed by contested knowledge and declining trust in experts.

To begin your submission, click here. 

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