Congratulations to Martin Williams on his new book, Reform as Process: Implementing Change in Public Bureaucracies!
On this VoxDev podcast, Martin Williams draws on over a decade of research across six African countries to explain why civil service reforms so often fall short and what leaders should do instead.
"In development economics, attention often falls on policy design rather than how those policies actually get implemented. Martin Williams, author of Reform as Process: Implementing Change in Public Bureaucracies, spent more than a decade studying civil service reform from the inside, partnering with the Office of the Head of Civil Service in Ghana and examining 131 reform efforts across six countries. In this episode of VoxDevTalks, he explains why even well-intentioned reforms so frequently fall short, and what civil service leaders can do about it."
Martin Williams is an Associate Professor of Organizational Studies and Associate Professor (by courtesy) of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He is also Associate Faculty at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and an Associate Fellow at Green Templeton College. From 2016 to 2024, Williams was an Associate Professor of Public Management at the Blavatnik School and a Research Fellow at Green Templeton College. His research is on the politics and management of policy implementation, public service delivery, and bureaucratic reform.
