What is Good Government? The Philosophy of Office, Institutions, and Administration

Nikolas Kirby, Reader in Politics and International Relations, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow

Nikolas Kirby is Reader in Politics and International Relations at the University of Glasgow. He was previously Democracy Visiting Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School, and before that Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and Director of the Building Integrity Programme at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. His work has been published in journals including Philosophy and Public Affairs, Journal of Politics, and British Journal of Political Science, and is the co-editor, with Giacomo Floris, of How Can We Be Equals? (OUP, 2024).

Introduction: The Philosophy of Good Government, Nikolas KirbyPart I. Public Service: Merit and Value1. Guarding the Guardians: Plato and Constitutionalism for the Good of the Ruled, Melissa Lane2. Confucian Perspectives on Good Governance and Regime Type: Historical Choices and their Contemporary Legacy, Joseph ChanPart II. Public Institutions: Power and Accountability3. Democracy and the Operational Integrity of Government, Mark Philp4. Office Accountability: The Open Texture of Public Institutional Normativity, Emanuela Ceva and Maria Paola FerrettiPart III. Public Will: Compliance and Discretion5. The Case for Administrative Codetermination, Chiara Cordelli6. Relational Discretion and Good Governance, Daniel EngsterPart IV. Public Control: Non-Domination and Responsiveness7. State, Republic, and Good Government, Philip Pettit8. Good Self-Governance, Leah DowneyPart V. Public Goods: Individual and Collective9. The Administrative State, Inside Out, Cass Sunstein10. Collective Rights and the Obligations of Good Government, Blake EmersonPart VI. Public Trust: Loyalty and Purpose11. Fiduciary Governance, Nikolas Kirby12. Political Trust, Public Justification, and the Judicial Role, Paul B. MillerPart VII. Public Experience: Explanation, Reasonableness, and Representation13. Explanation and Power: Governing Well with Algorithms, Zeynep Pamuk14. Reasonableness as a Quality of Good Government, Joseph Heath15. Making Government Work: The Recursivity Response, Jane Mansbridge