RECONNECT

The current age of political turbulence – expressed through citizen dissatisfaction and populist politics – represents a fundamental challenge to the authority of the institutions of the administrative state. As public administration is central to democratic governance, as it connects citizens to the state, it is central to explore sources of citizen disconnection and administrative efforts to reconnect citizens with the state.

RECONNECT investigates how calls for more ‘responsive’ administrative state institutions have developed – both among citizens and politicians – and how the administrative state has sought to become more responsive, especially when simultaneously faced with expectations of neutrality and impartiality.

RECONNECT explores, across European states, five distinct citizen-focused dimensions of the administrative state: constitutional, regulatory, enabling, consumer-protecting and consulting dimensions. Using a mixed-methods approach, including attitudinal, media, document and interview analysis, RECONNECT generates new knowledge to compare and explain variation across both European jurisdictions and dimensions of the administrative state. In the process, the project contributes to academic and practitioner debates regarding the future of the administrative state, and to a better understanding of how citizens can be reconnected to wider democratic governance and the administrative state in particular.

Reconnect Ethics and Data Management

Knowledge Exchange & Dissemination Plan

London School of Economics and Political Science, Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation

Martin Lodge, Project Leader

David Wilson, Research Officer

King's College London

Christel Koop, Principal Investigator

Alena Pivavarava, Research Associate

Leiden University

Caelesta Braun, Principal Investigator

Moritz Müller, Postdoctoral Researcher

Norwegian Business School

Nick Sitter, Principal Investigator

Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals

Jacint Jordana, Principal Investigator

Juan Carlos Triviño Salazar, Research Fellow

A private briefing to the Industry and Regulators Committee, House of Lords, Martin Lodge, 5 April 2022.

Constitution and Governance in the UK, a report from UK in a Changing Europe, 29 March 2022, p.50, “Arm’s-length bodies” by Christel Koop and Martin Lodge https://ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/UKIN-Constitution-Governance-Report-1.pdf

The project RECONNECT is financially supported by the NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Democratic Governance in a Turbulent Age and co-funded by AEI, ESRC, NWO and RCN, and the European Commission through Horizon 2020 under grant agreement No 822166