Democratic Backsliding, Populism, and Public Administration
Open accessAbstract
What happens to public administration when populists are elected into government? This article argues that populists seek to realize an anti-pluralist reform agenda, thereby fuelling trends of democratic backsliding. Against this background, the article discusses potential goals and strategies of populist public administration policy and introduces examples of how populists sought to capture (Orbán in Hungary), dismantle (Fujimori in Peru), sabotage (Trump in the United States), and reform (Blocher in Switzerland) the state bureaucracy. In doing so, populists in government aim at structures, resources, personnel, norms, and accountability relationships. The examples suggest that populist public administration policies can have profound impact on policymaking and democracy, underlining the need for a broader research agenda on this issue area.
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No government can govern without relying on at least parts of the existing bureaucratic machinery.
“no government, not even of the most elite-bashing anti-establishment kind, can govern without relying on (at least parts of) the existing bureaucratic machinery (Bauer & Becker, 2020;Finer, 1997).”
From Public Administration Under Populist Rule: Standing Up Against Democratic Backsliding (2024) · cites this paper as Bauer & Becker, 2020
Populists in government use politicization-often excessively-to 'cleanse' staff along ideological lines, offering patronage to favorites, and thus securing de facto control by putting trusted personnel in strategic positions.
“Populists also use politicization -often excessively -to”
From Public Administration Under Populist Rule: Standing Up Against Democratic Backsliding (2024) · cites this paper as Bauer & Becker, 2020
PA research has centered on identifying populist strategies aiming at reforming the civil service and on the ability and responsibility of public officials to react to the populist threat.
“So far PA research has centered on identifying populist strategies aiming at reforming the civil service -most of the time by renouncing liberal values, strengthening hierarchy and excessively politicizing recruitment and career advancement (Bauer & Becker, 2020;Bauer, Peters, & Pierre, 2021) -as well as on the ability and responsibility of public officials to react to the populist threat of”
From Public Administration Under Populist Rule: Standing Up Against Democratic Backsliding (2024) · cites this paper as Bauer & Becker, 2020
'Sabotaging' or 'enervating' constitute 'negative' strategies as they hamper the bureaucracy from doing its job by publicly bashing administrators, dismissing experts, decreasing operational budgets, or deploying loyalists as partisan leaders.
“Such”
From Public Administration Under Populist Rule: Standing Up Against Democratic Backsliding (2024) · cites this paper as Bauer & Becker, 2020
For populists in government, the public administration system and state bureaucracy are the first institutions they are confronted with or have at their disposal to pursue their agenda.
“for populists in government, the public administration system in general, and the state bureaucracy in particular, are the first institutions of the democratic state they are”
From Public Administration Under Populist Rule: Standing Up Against Democratic Backsliding (2024) · cites this paper as Bauer & Becker, 2020
Cites
Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services
Lipsky, M. (1981) · Michigan Law Review · doi:10.2307/1288305 · Cited by 8,981 · see citing works
A third wave of autocratization is here: what is new about it?
Lührmann, A., & Lindberg, S. I. (2019) · Democratization · doi:10.1080/13510347.2019.1582029 · Cited by 1,528 · see citing works
Unwelcome Change: Coming to Terms with Democratic Backsliding
Waldner, D., & Lust, E. (2018) · Annual Review of Political Science · doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-050517-114628 · Cited by 889 · see citing works
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Public Administration Under Populist Rule: Standing Up Against Democratic Backsliding
Bauer, M. W. (2024) · International Journal of Public Administration · doi:10.1080/01900692.2023.2243400 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
“By “using” their state administrations, varying patterns of interaction can be expected, namely capture, dismantling, sabotage, or a form of incremental reform of the bureaucracy (Bauer & Becker, 2020; Bauer, Peters, & Pierre, 2021; Drezner, 2019).”
InfluentialSelf-citationThe Guardian State: Strengthening the public service against democratic backsliding
Yesilkagit, K., Bauer, M., Peters, B. G., & Pierre, J. (2024) · Public Administration Review · doi:10.1111/puar.13808 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Self-citationBringing political science back into public administration research
Peters, B. G., Pierre, J., Sørensen, E., & Torfing, J. (2022) · Governance · doi:10.1111/gove.12705 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Bauer, M. W. (2025) · Public Administration Review · doi:10.1111/puar.70028 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“…are restructured, whether administrative autonomy survives, and in what ways administrative organizations are reshaped to serve illiberal ends (Green 2019; Rockman 2019; Peters and Pierre 2019; Bauer and Becker 2020; Peters 2024; Lotta et al. 2024; Alon-Barkat et al. 2025; James 2025).”
Self-citationRamos, F., Tavares, A. F., & da Cruz, N. F. (2026) · Children and Youth Services Review · doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108738 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
- Authors
- Bauer, M. W., & Becker, S.
- Affiliations
- German University of Administrative Sciences (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Bauer, Michael W
- Venue
- Perspectives on Public Management and Governance
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2020-01-09
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 19-31
- ISSN
- 2398-4910 (ISSN-L)
- 2398-4929
- OpenAlex
- W2999491642
- Cited by
- 307
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 65 · 2025: 106 · 2024: 48 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 4
- FWCI
- 43.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Perspectives on Public Management and Governance (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Cadmus - EUI Research Repository (European University Institute) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Populism, Right-Wing Movements
- Social Sciences › Public Administration › Public Policy and Administration Research
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Public Administration and Governance
- Keywords
- democratic backsliding, populism, public administration, anti-pluralism, bureaucratic reform, state capture, accountability, political leadership, Hungary, Peru, United States, Switzerland
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