Michael R. Ford

Professor of

Public Administration

• The Erosion of Governing Norms: The Case of Wisconsin Political Appointees. PA Times. June 10, 2024.
• The Tensions Between Institutions and Populism. PA Times. May 6, 2024.
• Reflecting on 10 Years in Academic Public Administration. PA Times. April 8, 2024.
• What Power Does a Council Member Actually Have? PA Times. March 4, 2024.
• The Governing Advantage of Professionally Managed Municipalities. PA Times. February 5, 2024.
• Of Speech and Consequences. PA Times. January 8, 2024.
• A Role for Government in Collective Impact Initiatives. PA Times. December 4, 2023.
• Searching for Accountability in a Complex Organizational Failure. PA Times. November 6, 2023.
• Naively Optimistic Thoughts on Budgeting. PA Times. October 9, 2023.
• Mitigating and Learning from School Failures in School Choice Programs. PA Times. September 6, 2023.
• The Future of Practitioner-Focused MPA Programs. PA Times. August 7, 2023.
• Rethinking MPA Curriculum to Match Local Government Needs. PA Times. July 10, 2023.
• Has the Term Equity Lost all Practical Meaning? PA Times. June 5, 2023.
• Rethinking School Board Interest Groups. PA Times. May 8, 2023.
• Free Speech and Social Equity: Branches of the Same Tree. PA Times. April 10, 2023.
• Challenges to Creating a Culture of Philanthropy in MPA Programs. PA Times. March 6, 2023.
• The Toxic Impact of Culture Wars on Policy. PA Times. February 6, 2023.
• The Big Questions Facing PA in 2023. PA Times. December 16, 2022.
• From the Politics of Governing to the Politics of Winning. PA Times. November 18, 2022.
• What is so Scary about Equity? PA Times. October 21, 2022.
• The Huge Challenges Facing the Local Government Workforce. PA Times. September 16, 2022.
• Making the Most of Federal ARPA Funds. PA Times. August 18, 2022.
• Meeting the Collective Impact Data Challenge. PA Times. July 15, 2022.
• Moving Past the Culture Wars. PA Times. June 17, 2022.
• Now More than Ever We Need Local Government to Show the Way. PA Times. May 20, 2022.
• Seeing your Professional Weaknesses as Strength. PA Times. April 14, 2022.
• Moving Beyond Civility. PA Times. March 17, 2022.
• Searching for the Common Good. PA Times. February 17, 2022.
• The Politicization of Administrative Concepts. PA Times. January 19, 2022.
• School Boards Matter. PA Times. December 18, 2021.
• Making Sense of Wisconsin’s Absurd Election Investigation. PA Times. October 19, 2021.
• The Challenge of the City Manager: Being a Rational Actor in an Irrational Time. PA Times. September 21, 2021.
• Why School Board Elections Should Stay Non-Partisan. PA Times. August 25, 2021.
• The Problem with Governance by Gesture. PA Times, July 21, 2021.
• Pushing Back Against Democratic Decline. PA Times, June 22, 2021.
• Learning From Our Herd Immunity Failure. PA Times, May 24, 2021.
• A Post-COVID Research Agenda. PA Times, April 19, 2021.
• Much Ado About Masks. PA Times, March 22, 2021.
• Is the Council-Manager Form of Government the Right Form of Government? PA Times, February 23, 2021.
• Making Accountability Actionable. PA Times, January 20, 2021.
• Reflecting on 2021 and Looking Ahead to a Challenging 2021. PA Times, December 12, 2020.
• The Big Questions Facing Public Administration in 2020. PA Times, January 11, 2020.
• Chaos and Confusion: The Erosion of Administrative Capacity in Wisconsin.  PA Times. September, 2019.
• Combatting Conspiratorial Thinking.  PA Times. April, 2019.
• Understanding Public Administration Through the Concept of Failure. PA Times. March, 2019.
• Improving Public Administration Conferences. PA Times. February, 2019.
• Comfort with Ambiguity: Why it Matters and Ways to Teach it. PA Times. December 10, 2018.
• Facts Matter, and We Can Show our Students Exactly How. PA Times.  November 5, 2018.
• Understanding Governance Through Perceptions. PA Times.  October 8, 2018.
• From Trump to Minnowbrook: Navigating Current Issues in PA.  PA Times.  September 10, 2018.
• Lessons in Performance Management from Wisconsin.  PA Times.  August 6, 2018.
• Is American Public Administration in Decline?  PA Times.  August, 2018.
• Leveraging Media, Social and Otherwise to Connect Public Administration Research to Practice. PA Times. June, 2018.
• The Value Research of Research in Practitioner-Focused MPA Programs. PA Times. April 9, 2018.
• The Practical Challenge of Doing What Works. PA Times.  March 5, 2018.
• Lessons from the Government Shutdown.  PA Times.  February 4, 2018.
• The Big Questions Facing Public Administration in 2018. PA Times. January 8, 2018.
• ​The Makings of a Good Municipal Budget Document.  PA Times.  December 12, 2017.
• In Defense of Democratic Governance.  PA Times.  November 13, 2017.
• Recommitting to Public Service Values in Troubled Times.  PA Times.  October 30, 2017.
• Making the Most of Undergraduate Public Administration.  PA Times.  September 29, 2017. 
• The Importance of Studying Small Municipalities.  PA Times.  August, 2017.
• The Challenge of Linking Governance to Performance.  PA Times.  May 20, 2016.