https://www.civicbureaucracy.org/book/
The focus on the crisis of party-political democracy has diverted attention away from the role of wider institutions of governance. In his book, Towards a New Civic Bureaucracy: Lessons from sustainable development for the crisis of governance, Matthew Quinn redresses this balance and argues that our current public bureaucracy is dominated by technocratic approaches that do not serve our troubled democracies well. He believes that public administration at national and local levels sustains outmoded forms of governance that weaken civic engagement and are unable to support the complex economic, social, environmental and democratic challenges of that lie ahead.
The author describes and analyses systemic governance challenges and proposes a new civic bureaucracy which fosters societal engagement and inclusive civic democracy. Drawing on lessons from alternative governance models, the book offers innovations in governing for sustainable development such as The Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act as ways to support and enable the reimagining of the role of bureaucracy for the 21st century.
To achieve ecological resilience and wellbeing, this new model for civic bureaucracy includes ideas and tools such as systems thinking and participatory democracy, as well as institutions to address the root causes of unsustainability rather than treating their symptoms.
Matthew J. Quinn has over 30 years of experience as a senior UK official working on sustainability governance and is currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Sustainable Places Research Institute at Cardiff University. As part of his role as Welsh Government Director for Environment and Sustainable Development, Matthew oversaw the development of the Welsh Well-being of Future Generations Act.
The video below provides a short description of the book by Matthew J. Quinn.
Links
- For details, please see Matthew’s website.
- Towards a New Civic Bureaucracy: Lessons from sustainable development for the crisis of governance. Published in February 2022 by Bristol.
