Martin Lodge

Karen Yeung

As the power and sophistication of of "big data" and predictive analytics has continued to expand, so too has policy and public concern about the use of algorithms in contemporary life. This is hardly surprising given our increasing reliance on algorithms in daily life, touching policy sectorsfrom healthcare, transport, finance, consumer retail, manufacturing education, and employment through to public service provision and the operation of the criminal justice system. This has prompted concerns about the need and importance of holding algorithmic power to account, yet it is far fromclear that existing legal and other oversight mechanisms are up to the task.This collection of essays, edited by two leading regulatory governance scholars, offers a critical exploration of "algorithmic regulation", understood both as a means for co-ordinating and regulating social action and decision-making, as well as the need for institutional mechanisms through whichthe power of algorithms and algorithmic systems might themselves be regulated. It offers a unique perspective that is likely to become a significant reference point for the ever-growing debates about the power of algorithms in daily life in the worlds of research, policy and practice. The range ofcontributors are drawn from a broad range of disciplinary perspectives including law, public administration, applied philosophy, data science and artificial intelligence. Taken together, they highlight the rise of algorithmic power, the potential benefits and risks associated with this power, theway in which Sheila Jasanoff's long-standing claim that "technology is politics" has been thrown into sharp relief by the speed and scale at which algorithmic systems are proliferating, and the urgent need for wider public debate and engagement of their underlying values and value trade-offs, theway in which they affect individual and collective decision-making and action, and effective and legitimate mechanisms by and through which algorithmic power is held to account.

Algorithmic Regulation

Christopher Hood

Gladstone Professor of Government All Souls College Christopher Hood

The traditional understandings that structure the relationships between public servants and the wider political system are said to have undergone considerable change. But what are these formalized and implicit understandings? What are the key dimensions of such bargains? In what conditions do bargains rise and fall? And has there been a universal and uniform change in these bargains?The Politics of Public Service Bargains develops a distinct perspective to answer these questions. It develops a unique analytical perspective to account for diverse bargains within systems of executive government. Drawing on comparative experiences from different state traditions, this study examines ideas and contemporary developments along three key dimensions of any Public Service Bargain - reward, competency and loyalty and responsibility.The Politics of Public Service Bargains points to diverse and differentiated developments across national systems of executive government and suggests how different 'bargains' are prone to cheating by their constituent parties. This study explores the context in which managerial bargains - widely seen to be at the heart of contemporary administrative reform movements - are likely to catch on and considers how cheating is likely to destabilize such bargains.

Reward, Competency, Loyalty - and Blame

The Politics of Public Service Bargains

Robert Baldwin

Martin Cave

Regulation is often thought of as an activity that restricts behaviour and prevents the occurrence of certain undesirable activities, but the influence of regulation can also be enabling or facilitative, as when a market could potentially be chaotic if uncontrolled. This Handbook provides a clear and authoritative discussion of the major trends and issues in regulation over the last thirty years, together with an outline of prospective developments. It brings together contributions from leading scholars from a range of disciplines and countries. Each chapter offers a broad overview of key current issues and provides an analysis of different perspectives on those issues. Experiences in different jurisdictions and insights from various disciplines are drawn upon, and particular attention is paid to the challenges that are encountered when specific approaches are applied in practice. Contributors develop their own distinctive arguments relating to the central issues in regulation and apply scholarly rigour and clear writing to matters of high policy-relevance. The essays are original, accessible, and agenda-setting, and the Handbook will be essential reading both to students and researchers and to with regulatory and regulated professionals.

The Oxford Handbook of Regulation

Kai Wegrich

Governance Challenges and Innovations examines the capacity of contemporary governments to act upon and address the pressing problems of our time. What can public administration do, or be expected to do, during the current 'age of austerity' after waves of reforms that have changed the architecture of the state? This volume highlights four basic administrative capacities that matter for governance, i.e. coordinating various branches of the state,regulating markets, delivering services and implementing policy, and making sense of increasingly complex tasks through the use of knowledge and analysis. It features chapters that focus on the way in which thesecapacities have become stretched and how they have been adjusted; the way in which states have addressed particular governance challenges; and, finally, governance capacities and innovations outside the boundaries of the state.

Governance Challenges and Administrative Capacities

The Problem-solving Capacity of the Modern State

An introduction to the practical and theoretical issues that are central to the study of regulation, which a particular focus on contested areas and how they are dealt with.

Martin Lodge

About

Books

Join the club