What is Good Government?

The Philosophy of Office, Institutions, and Administration

Buch | Hardcover

352 Seiten

2026
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-891046-6 (ISBN)

Noch nicht erschienen (ca. April 2026)
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This volume brings together some of today's foremost political philosophers to explore the complex relationship between good government and other concepts fundamental to politics: justice, legitimacy, and the common good.

What is good government? The concept of 'good government' aims to set an ideal for how governments - and their constituent agents - should act, be structured, and held accountable. It promises a fundamental norm to guide the design of its offices and institutions and the administrative state. It is a concept central to contemporary development practice, public administration, and political science, but has largely been neglected in contemporary political philosophy. This, therefore, is the first edited volume specifically dedicated to the philosophy of good government. Bringing together some of today's foremost political philosophers, it explores the complex relationship between good government and other concepts fundamental to politics: justice, legitimacy, and the common good. Placing in conversation classical, modern, and contemporary perspectives, this volume explores themes such as the role of virtue, education, and ritual in governance; political realism and the role of accountability institutions; the virtues and vices of the administrative state; official discretion and public control of state institutions; public trust and the fiduciary conception of public office; and the importance of explanation, reasonableness, and representation in administrative decision-making.

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).

Erscheint lt. Verlag	30.4.2026
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
ISBN-10	0-19-891046-0 / 0198910460
ISBN-13	978-0-19-891046-6 / 9780198910466
Zustand	Neuware