UKPAC Prize Competition 2004: Judges’ Report

View the Prospectus for the 2004 competition.

The entries proved to be of high quality – perhaps unsurprisingly so given that they had already been accepted for publication by good quality journals. There were some clear front-runners among both academic and practitioner contributors, with especially strong entries exploring different aspects of Europeanisation, modernization and the reform of different layers of government. One of the judges commented that ‘the best contributions take our understanding forward and prompt fresh examination of what can seem to be familiar territory.’ Most of the entries had something worthwhile to say to practitioners as well as to an academic audience.

Despite the high quality of the field, all three judges came independently to the view that one item stood out from the rest, namely: Colin Hay, ‘Theory, Stylised Heuristic or Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? The Status of Rational Choice Theory in Public Administration’, Public Administration, vol. 82(1), 2004, pp. 39-62.

One of the judges thought that this essay was ‘timely and offers a way forward, prompting both the analyst and the practitioner to challenge what have become stereotypical assumptions about human behaviour. It also includes a well judged warning about the potential dangers of self limiting beliefs at a time when many of us sense that our challenges have become even more complex in this global society.’  Another judge wrote that Hay’s article displays, ‘scholarly weight with an excellent quality to his writing and originality in his magisterial debunking of Rational Choice Theory in Public Administration. The logic of his argument is inexorable and the depth of his analysis is impressive. The discussion of the impact of Public Choice theory upon public sector reform, combines with an exposure of its flaws and inconsistencies to illustrate that as a self-fulfilling prophesy, its roots in neo-classical economic theory provide a sorry grounding for some of the implications that modernising politicians have used in their dramatic reconstruction of the classical structures.’

Accordingly, we recommend that the 2004 UKPAC Prize be awarded to Professor Colin Hay, Head of the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham.  We note that the rules of the competition provide for the possibility of a further award being made to the winning entrant’s university department, and we are happy to recommend that this be done in this instance.

Gavin Drewry (Convenor),
Andrew Massey
Margaret Saner

1 July 2004