The Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre, policy@manchester and Politics, School of Social Sciences are co-hosting a one day conference on the Development of Government on 3rd November 2015, 9.00 am – 5.30 pm.

This will be the first of what we hope will be a series of academic conferences in Manchester aimed at improving our understanding of how Government develops and evolves, in the past, present and future.

We will bring together political scientists, political economists, sociologists, economists, historians, public administrationists, development specialists, and other disciplines to promote a dialogue on what we know about “Government”.

This Conference is inspired by the centenary of the birth of the late Sammy Finer, former Professor of Government at Manchester, and author of what was then the introductory textbook for politics students ‘Comparative Government’.

The later three-volume “The History of Government” was Sammy’s 'magnum opus' was the (then) most ambitious attempt to chronicle the history of how various forms of government had emerged, mutated, survived or died over the past five millennia of human history.

Today, studies of government have become fragmented and often parochial in their concerns, in terms of disciplines, history and geographically.

Governmental changes in some areas of Government are under-researched, notably important emerging and developing states like India and China. Recent major waves democratization and change in areas like Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and most recently some Arab countries have been poorly understood. Far too much contemporary study of Government and public administration has often been "OECD-centric" at best, and "anglo-centric" at worst.

Studying Government has also been fragmented by disciplinary boundaries. So although there is some overlap between the study of Government, and especially public administration or more fashionably "public management", in OECD countries and in the developing world, the links have often been weak. The general fragmentation of social sciences into ever more specialized niches has not helped.

Sessions will include:

Introduction: The lasting significant of Sammy Finer's work
Keynote: The quality of government and development policy
Panel 1: Measuring government
Panel 2: Too much? The size and role of the state in developed countries
Panel 3: Too little? The challenges of public sector reform in developing countries
Plenary debate: How we can we advance the understanding of the development of government most effectively?

Confirmed speakers include:

Bo Rothstein
Kunal Sen
Antonio Savoia
Colin Talbot
Diane Coyle
Kevin Farnsworth
Pablo Yanguas
Richard Batley
Nick Manning
Peter Evans
Anuradha Joshi

We would like to invite you to attend this exciting conversation and also join us for a public lecture to be given by the political economist Will Hutton 7-8.30 pm (please sign up for this here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-inaugural-sammy-finer-lecture-on-government-with-will-hutton-registration-18094008667 )

There is no charge for attending these events, but participants will need to cover their own travel costs.

The conference is intended for academic and practitioner colleagues. We do have limited spaces for PhD scholars.

Development of Government Conference