Editing Public Administration
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Author | Martin Lodge |
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12824 |
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
Editing Public Administration
Martin Lodge
Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation & Department of Government, London School of Economics, London, UK
Correspondence
Martin Lodge, Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation & Department of Government, London School of Economics, Houghton
Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK.
Email: m.lodge@lse.ac.uk
Public Administration is the longest-standing journal in the field. Founded in the aftermath of the First World War, its
creation reflected a concern with thestability of political-administrative regimesat a time of great social turmoil,and an
increased, and related, interest in machinery of government questions. Viscount Richard Haldane, the founder of this
journal,was one of the most senior Britishstatespeople of his time,responsible for major governmentreforms. His exten-
sive networkacross the political andacademic spectrum supportedthe creation of the LondonSchool of Economics and
PoliticalScience (LSE). His influence onBritish higher education is stillfelt to the present day, namelywith the “Haldane
Principle”thatresearch funding decisionsare to be made by academic peer-reviewnot politicians. The creationof Public
Administrationreflected Haldane'svision of the roleof the civil service in supportingstate capacity.He envisaged a highly
educatedcivil service, cooperatingclosely with the academicworld, thereby bringingabout improved efficiencyin public
administration(Campbell, 2020,pp. 325–326). Haldane's stronginterest in machineryof government questionswas also
informedby his interest in German philosophy(especially Hegel).The founding journal editorialnoted an emphasis on the
scientific study of public administration whose “single aim [was] the efficiency of public services, andthe efficiency of
public servants.”The journal was to provide a placefor “clear thinking”(see Haldane, 1923) by publishing articles that
made,as noted by the first ever editorial,an “actual contributionsto knowledge and discussion.”
Fast forward to the world of the 2010s. It is a word of post-financial depression, political turmoil including dem-
ocratic backsliding and Brexit, and considerable concern as to the problem-solving capacity of the state (see Lodge &
Wegrich, 2014). Public Administration has long evolved toward becoming a major international academic journal,
especially under the editorial stewardship of Rod Rhodes (2022). In 2011, the objective of the new editorial team
that had been put together by Arjen Boin (including Martin Lodge, Salvador Parrado, Kai Wegrich, Chris Ansell and
Lan Xue), was to continue on this path of internationalization. This process continued during the period 2017–2020
when the editorial team included Lodge, Sharon Gilad, Salvador Parrado, Samuel Workman and Lan Xue. As noted
by Aoiki et al. (2022), the ambition throughout the 2010s was to allow for a “big tent”approach toward the study of
public administration, offering a home to papers of international significance, regardless of theoretical, conceptual
and methodological tradition or geographical location (Boin et al., 2011).
Public Administration has also been seen as a traditionally “British”journal, reflecting its origins in the 1920s. The
reputation for being British (or, to put it less politely, insular) lay behind the inclusion of “international”in the subtitle
and the existence of a dedicated “European forum”section (edited by Walter Kickert). The team taking over in 2011
removed such different sections within the journal. On the one hand, the journal was truly international in its scope
and no longer required any specific signposting. On the other hand, the nature of articles made such a distinction
appear ever more arbitrary. The team also reintroduced the annual Haldane Prize for the “best paper”(as selected
Received: 3 January 2022 Accepted: 4 January 2022
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12824
12 © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Public Admin. 2022;100:12–16.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm
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