UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Anthony Bertelli, Douglas S. and Joyce L. Sherwin Professor in the College of the Liberal Arts Honoring Frank Whitmore and professor of public policy and political science, will present "Democracy Administered: Understanding the Role of Public Administration in Representative Government" for the Midwest Political Science Association’s 2020 Herbert Simon Award lecture at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 18.
The Herbert Simon Award honors a mid-career scholar who has made significant contributions to the scientific study of bureaucracy. Nominees and recipients are selected by the Midwest Caucus on Policy Administration.
An elected member of the National Academy of Public Administration, Bertelli has held faculty positions at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, Bocconi University in Italy, the University of Southern California, the University of Georgia, Texas A&M, and the University of Kentucky.
A prolific author and scholar, he has published six books and more than sixty articles on policy, public administration, international policy, and political science. He is the senior executive editor of the Journal of Public Policy and serves on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and Political Science Research and Methods.
In his lecture, Bertelli will argue that the democratic values of administration should complement the democratic values of the representative government.
“In the traditional narrative of public administration, democratic values are confined to the relationship between representatives and managers through various configurations of rules and organizational forms,” explained Bertelli. “This narrative balances the accountability of managers to representatives, a problem of control, with the need for administration to work effectively, a problem of capability.”
"Professor Bertelli has built a career centered on marrying research on bureaucracy and public management to larger concerns of interest to political scientists, ranging from democratic theory to new institutionalism theory,” said William G. Resh, director of the Midwest Caucus on Policy Administration. “I can think of no better example of the spirit and intention of the Simon Award. This lecture is sure to be compelling and timely for anyone in or adjacent to the field of public administration."
The Nov. 18 lecture is closed to public attendance but will be streamed live via MediaSite from Foster auditorium in Paterno Library. Advance registration is required; guests will be sent a link upon registration and will have the option to ask questions during the event.
To register, visit https://publicpolicy.psu.edu/event-registration.