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Theme-based book review: Government capacity and capability
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Theme-based book review: Government capacity and capability

Christopher L. Atkinson
International Journal of Public Administration, Vol.44, pp.530-535
44
2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2021.1872623
Web of Science ID: WOS:000627328200007

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Abstract

Government capacity and capability are not only a matter of public rhetoric. Government capacity may be seen when government can “do what it wants to do” (Gargan, 1981, p. 656). Capacity has been tied to policy, resource and program management, but capacity is not exclusively a matter of management. Government capability is evidenced by institutions that “respond effectively to change . . . make decisions efficiently, effectively (i.e., rationally) and responsively, [and] . . . manage conflict” (Bowman & Kearney, 1988, p. 343). Arrangements within institutional structures help organizations to move beyond simple static capacity to kinetic movement in realization of government’s goals; in this respect, accountability, coordinating ability, staffing and resources may point to capability (Bowman & Kearney, 1988). Still, government institutions frequently have difficulty translating capacity into realized performance (Manning & Holt, 2014). Capacity and capability have context-specific characteristics. Efforts to impose systems and capacities out of context, as mimetic isomorphism, can fail (Frumkin & Galaskiewicz, 2004; Pritchett et al., 2013). Public sector enterprises are constrained by a variety of factors, from within and outside the organization; some factors are overt, but others may be difficult to identify, borne of individual and group limitations that inform the human condition. This themed book review looks at four recent books that on some level address government capacity and capability – what can be expected and gotten from the public administration enterprise. The books include The Three Ages of Government: From the Person, to the Group, to the World, by Jos C.N. Raadschelders; A Modern Guide to Public Policy, edited by Giliberto Capano and Michael Howlett; Transportation and the State: Governing the Public Domain, by Hans Keman and Japp J. Woldendorp; and The Death of Idealism: Development and Anti-Politics in the Peace Corps, by Meghan Elizabeth Kallman.

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