🔔 New Issue Alert – Editor's Choice: 💫 Do people decide a program is "worth the effort" before they open the application? A new study runs three survey experiments on a grocery benefit and tax rebate. Heavier documentation lowers willingness to apply.

📑 🧵JPART Introduces a Submission Cap Pilot Beginning July 1, 2026 Like many journals, JPART has seen a sharp rise in submissions, and our data point to GenAI as a major driver.

💫 New Issue Highlight: How do public agencies decide which programs to prioritize when their budgets get cut?

💫 How does partisan control of governors shape how hard state agencies work to detect program errors? A new study of UI programs in all 50 states (2002–2021) finds Republican-appointed agencies pursue ~$2.65M more in overpayment detection per year than Democratic-appointed ones.

#Wilmasreview Wilma 🐶 is blown away 🤯 because HER paper just won the Beryl Radin Award for the best article in the @jpart1991.bsky.social 1/🧵

💫 Does paying public providers for performance actually deliver better results? A new meta-analysis of 740 observations across 38 studies finds the average effect is small and not significant. What matters is design: outcome-based measures outperform process/output metrics.

💫 Does simply recalling an interaction with a government program leave a psychological mark? A new SNAP survey experiment (n=3,812) finds that recalling encounters increased negative affect, even though most reported low burden. Negative experiences leave a stronger imprint than positive ones.

💫 When federal agencies say they "heard" the public, does that mean they actually listened? A new study of 854 federal rules finds regulatory text rarely changes between proposal and finalization.

Peer review is the backbone of academic quality, and JPART is fortunate to have an exceptional reviewer community. We're delighted to announce the recipients of the 2026 JPART Outstanding Reviewer Award, recognizing outstanding reviewing work done in 2025.

🚨 Our editorial team (editors and associate editors) has released a statement on maintaining academic quality in the age of generative AI, published in PMRA's Management Matters. We expect to launch concrete initiatives this summer, in dialogue with PMRA. Full statement linked below!

💫 When local governments plan for the future, do they actually see the disadvantages their communities face? This study of 462 municipalities finds manager-led cities plan broadly but underprioritize social vulnerabilities,

💫 Can specialized institutions really change behavior on the ground? A new study, by Yuhao Ba, uses China's environmental courts as a case of policy venue specialization.

💫 New Issue Highlight! Control or discretion? A new field experiment in 250 Danish schools (~17,000 students) tested two implementation support approaches for a reading intervention. Teachers preferred the fidelity approach. But families benefited more under professional responsibility.

💫 New issue alert: Analyzing ~20,000 utterances from 154 recorded public service encounters in Germany, this study finds bureaucrats speak more complexly and emotionally to male clients than female ones. The bureaucrat's own gender? No effect. By Laurin Friedrich & Steffen Eckhard

💫 New Issue Highlight: What if reducing red tape were as simple as rewriting an ad? A new study tested this with 75,451 participants. Clearer ads about services and eligibility drew significantly more women to active labor market programs.

New Issue Highlight: Is street-level responsiveness a solo choice between "client" or "rules"? A new ethnography of Amsterdam home care says no, it's an organizational achievement. Workers and managers do boundary work together, breaking and restoring institutional limits.

New Issue Highlight: How do collaborations between police and mental health organizations stay strong in turbulent environments? "Cultivating collaborative resilience amid volatility: implementation partnerships between law enforcement and mental health organizations"

New Issue Highlight! Ever wondered why some city governments outperform others, even with equally talented leaders at the top?

New Issue Highlight! What happens when a mostly White fire department is led by a Black fire chief, and how do Black and White firefighters actually view racial diversity under that leadership?

New Issue Highlight: Could adding more accountability (more checks, more evaluations, more oversight) actually make public employees work less hard?

New Issue Highlight: Could better teaching be as simple as giving teachers the right information—no rewards, no pressure, no oversight?

New Issue Highlight! What if the key to sustaining public sector collaboration isn’t eliminating tensions, but managing them?

New Issue Highlight! Can accountability to external bodies induce performance turnaround in struggling public services?

Have you ever wondered how military occupation reshapes the work of teachers and other public servants on the ground?

#Wilmasreview Wilma is standing in the beautiful @au.dk park and can't believe it — it's mid-April, and the trees are still bare! 🪵 Where she grew up, it would already be lush and green by now. 🌳 1/🧵

New article in JPART on administrative burdens. We examine how collaborating with citizens can help break down such burdens. The paper speaks to debates in public administration on policy design and citizen–state interactions. @jpart1991.bsky.social

We are pleased to share some great news from the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. As of January 1, 2026, Kim Sass Mikkelsen has been promoted to Full Editor and now serves as co Editor in Chief of JPART, on equal footing with Ole.

A recent @jpart1991.bsky.social study by @saaralonbarkat.bsky.social, @mbusuioc.bsky.social, @schwoererskayla.bsky.social & @ksweissmueller.bsky.social investigated this through a survey experiment with Dutch citizens. Some key insights: 2/🧵

Have you ever wondered how the visibility of your tax payments shapes how you feel about your local government? 🧵 This study shows that when people are less aware of their property tax payments,

Have you ever thought about how the right kind of leadership can make government work better? Between 2002 and 2022, 28 U.S. states upgraded their unemployment insurance IT systems, boosting on-time benefit delivery by 5.26 percent and reducing delays by 2.90 percent, a net improvement of 8.16 🧵

Have you ever wondered whether citizens hold public organizations less responsible for discrimination caused by AI than by humans? The study finds they do not. However, citizens assign more responsibility when the algorithm is developed in-house rather than outsourced.

Have you ever wondered why some bureaucracies respond more effectively to political demands than others? Research shows that agencies with slack resources, rather than just overall capacity, are significantly more responsive, commit to clearer timelines, and complete legislative requests faster.

Have you ever wondered what happens when governments introduce new policies without adding the administrative capacity to support them? Recent research shows that instead of improving problem-solving, such expansions can overwhelm public agencies, forcing them to engage in “policy triage”,

Have you ever wondered why some government agencies manage to stay on track even when key employees leave? This study shows that when task knowledge is embedded in organizational structures, through centralized authority and standardized processes, agencies are better equipped to

Have you ever wondered how street-level bureaucrats manage the pressures of working directly with clients? This study systematically reviews 165 studies using the PRISMA model to uncover both old and new coping mechanisms, including a newly identified approach called “moving with clients,”

🌞 Editor's Choice Article! The study introduces the concept of administrative limbo to describe citizens’ experiences of being trapped in prolonged bureaucratic processes that shape critical life outcomes.

📢 Now Available: JPART Vol. 35, No. 4 We’re pleased to announce that the latest issue of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory is out. In the coming days, we’ll be highlighting individual articles, introducing authors, and pulling out key insights. Stay tuned!

New research out from @tsguul.bsky.social and @scandersen.bsky.social in @jpart1991.bsky.social

And last but not least... How do client characteristics influence the willingness of frontline professionals to break rules to help them? 🧵

Following... How do government capacities shape the burdens citizens face when accessing public services? This study shows that administrative capacities, such as communication strategies, resource availability, and inter-agency coordination, can either reduce or intensify administrative burdens.

Do right-leaning governments run state-owned enterprises (SOEs) better? This new research from Brazil (2019–2022) finds that SOEs perform better financially under more right-leaning incumbents—but only when their political parties focus on policy over power.

Next... What if the glue holding frontline governance together is invisible and gendered?

Next one on the list... Have you ever wondered how frontline public workers respond when crises upend their usual ways of operating?

Next one... Have you wondered how state and federal governments ensure that local actors follow through on central policy goals?

Next...🧵 Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to compare public administrations across countries? This article tackles the confusion around Administrative Traditions

Let's begin! 🧵 Have you ever wondered how AI and humans can work together, not just side by side, to make better decisions in the public sector?

🚨 New Issue Alert! Volume 35, Issue 3 (July 2025) is now live! academic.oup.com/jpart/issue/... We’ll be highlighting each article in the coming days. Stay tuned!

New article in #JPART (@jpart1991.bsky.social): what if government leaves you stuck in administrative limbo for years on end? We find evidence of extensive strain, prolonged uncertainty and loss of perspective. @muirismac.bsky.social @woutervdooren.bsky.social Link: academic.oup.com/jpart/advanc...

🎉 Exciting news! My latest paper has just been published in #JPART @jpart1991.bsky.social. Titled “Exploring the Influence of Administrative Capacities on Administrative Burdens” Click here to learn more: academic.oup.com/jpart/articl...

Agency Leaders and Organizational Adaptation to Administrative Reform: Evidence from IT Reforms and the Timely Disbursement of Unemployment Insurance Benefits in the American States George A Krause & Ji Hyeun Hong @jpart1991.bsky.social academic.oup.com/jpart/articl...