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Narratives are an excellent tool for describing and interpreting political actions based on the stories or speeches of the different actors. Public administration studies tend to have a very conservative disciplinary orientation, that's why Professor R.A.W. Rhodes proposes to use narratives as a way to explain and understand public servants' behaviors. Like any approach, it has its advantages and disadvantages and it is not the only alternative, but it allows, through interviewing, direct observation and focus groups of public agents, to interpret their perceptions and rationalities. ; Las narrativas son una excelente herramienta para describir e interpretar las acciones políticas a partir de los relatos o discursos de los distintos actores. Los estudios de administración pública suelen tener una orientación disciplinaria muy conservadora, por eso, el profesor R.A.W. Rhodes propone utilizar a las narrativas como una forma de explicar y comprender el comportamiento de los servidores públicos. Como todo enfoque, tiene sus ventajas y desventajas y no es la única alternativa, pero permite mediante la interrogación, la observacion participante y focus groups de los agentes púbicos, interpretar sus percepciones y racionalidades.

The British tradition of political life history has six conventions: 'tombstone' biography, separation of public and private lives, life without theory, objective evidence and facts, character and storytelling. I describe each in turn and review the main debates in the tradition before turning to the swingeing critique by 'the interpretive turn'. Postmodernism deconstructed grand narratives by pronouncing the death of the subject and the death of the author. I outline an interpretive approach that reclaims life history by focusing on the idea of 'situated agency': that is, on the webs of significance that people spin for themselves against the backcloth of their inherited beliefs and practices. I explore, with examples, the implications of this approach for writing life history, stressing the different uses for biography open to political scientists. I end with some brief thoughts on why the British tradition of political life history has proved resistant to change.

Rod Rhodes' main publications are authored and edited books. Many of the individual articles and chapters were conceived of as dress rehearsals for later inclusion in the books. To avoid duplication and overlap, items included in books have not been listed as separate articles and chapters unless they attracted significant attention in their own right. The list comprises a 'Top 100' and focuses on the 'uncollected' articles and chapters, and the top material as suggested by ISI and Google citations, rejoinders, journal ranking, reprints in readers, and other 'objective' indicators. It also omits most juvenilia; everyone has to learn their craft. A complete bibliography of some 600 items that includes all articles and chapters, translations, book reviews, conference papers, discussion or occasional papers, newspaper articles, interviews, and other journalism is available on Rhodes' personal web page (http://www.raw-rhodes.com.au/). Adapted from the source document.

This article argues for research grounded in interpretive theory, or the beliefs and practices of actors, and observational fieldwork, or thick descriptions of what the actors think they are doing. However, discussions of theory and method only come to life when they are grounded in fieldwork. So, at the heart of the article is an account of the Private Offices of British central government departments. I argue that the focus on beliefs and practices enables me to tell a new story. The existing literature does not explore how the individuals who comprise the department's core executive coordinate the department's tasks and resolve conflicts. There is a 'departmental court' that dare not speak its name. By describing the court 'at work', I focus not on individual Private Offices but on the tasks of coordination and conflict resolution at the top of the department. I conclude that any approach that provides new evidence and a novel interpretation makes a strong case for inclusion in the armoury of every student of public administration.

The paper reassesses the argument in Understanding Governance (1997). The first section summarizes where we are now in the study of governance, reviewing briefly the key concepts of policy networks, governance, core executive, hollowing out the state and the differentiated polity. The second section engages with my critics with the aim of opening new directions of research. I concentrate on the key issues of: the context of policy networks, explaining change and the role of ideas, the decline of the state, rescuing the core executive, and steering networks. Under each heading, I sketch a decentred answer to the question of where we go from here. I argue the analysis of governance should focus on beliefs, practices, traditions and dilemmas.

This article views the new public management (NPM) as a prime example of the sour laws of unintended consequences in action. Section 1 places the UK in international context by arguing there is no such thing as NPM and suggesting recent public sector reforms vary along six dimensions: privatisation, marketisation, corporate management, regulation, decentralisation and political control. Section 2 updates the UK story by describing developments under New Labour. Section 3 identifies the unintended consequences of reform: fragmentation, steering, accountability, co‐ordination, and public service ethics. Section 4 argues the conventional story of public sector reform as marketization and corporate management omits significant changes. British government differentiated its service delivery systems and now employs at least three governing structures: bureaucracy, markets and networks. The final section discusses whether British experience is different. I argue a satisfactory explanation of the differences must include an analysis of governmental traditions that make public sector reform distinctive everywhere.