This brief suggest ideas for German public administration to become more sustainable and more effective in the face of highly complex challenges and how to integrate lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.
About the brief
The past months have dramatically shown the necessity for a fundamental transformation of Germany’s public administration.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the recent severe weather events have revealed significant shortcomings. Learning from these experiences is critical to make government and public services fit for the future. At the same time, a new approach to policy-making is needed to successfully address the most pressing challenges of the 21st century. Solving “wicked problems” requires policy design that moves away from the illusion of top-down control towards a network or governance model that emphasises collaboration with non-state actors. The authors argue that public administration in Germany must transform into a learning and experimenting organisation in order to implement ambitious reforms successfully and permanently. International experiences show that this is difficult, but possible. This policy brief, or rather the underlying Transformation-Navigator for public administration, sees itself as a forum for debate and ideas on the future of public administration in Germany. It presents ideas for how German public administration can become more sustainable and more effective in the face of highly complex challenges and how to integrate lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a meta-analysis of existing papers and existing research on public administration in Germany, recommendations for action for decision-makers in government are proposed.
Authors
Gerhard Hammerschmid, Thurid Hustedt and Kai Wegrich. In collaboration with the Creative Bureaucracy Festival.
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Addressing Germany’s governance challenges series
This report is part of the Hertie School’s policy briefs project for public reform. Learn more about the project.
About the authors
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Gerhard Hammerschmid, Professor of Public and Financial Management
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Thurid Hustedt, Dean of Graduate Programmes and Professor of Public Administration and Management
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Kai Wegrich, Dean of Research and Faculty and Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy