Dan Honig

I try to center the human(s) in everything I do: research, teaching, consulting, day to day interactions.  In my view this is the key to unlocking a better world -  a more just, thriving government, society, planet.

In my academic work this leads to a focus on the human-ness of the people who work for the state (bureaucrats) and the people who don't but interact with it (citizens).  I think about the organizational bits of government's role in enhancing citizens' welfare - particularly organizational structure,  motivation, and norms of state agencies and citizens' groups. 

In my day-to-day I try to live by William James' observation that the sum of one's life experiences is what we pay attention to.  I strive to pay attention to people as individuals - to learn their stories, to understand how their minds work, to have my lived experience broadened through the blessing of being able to interact with them. I'm liable to start a conversation on a train, park bench, or when waiting in line. If those conversations seem to be going well I'm likely to try to ask some real questions, to learn some real things about how the human I'm talking with makes meaning or what they want in their lives, and why. Victorian (UK) social reformer John Ruskin advocated that we "Only Connect".  On the days of my life that feel most worthwhile I can usually point to a meaningful connection that I think has or will help me be an improved version of myself.

To the more standard bio: 

I’m an associate professor of public policy at University College London's School of Public Policy/Department of Political Science, and an associate professor (with tenure) at Georgetown' University's McCourt School of Public Policy. 

My most recent book, Mission Driven Bureaucrats (Oxford University Press, 2024), explores how the humans who work for the state often are or can be driven by a desire to help deliver on the things their agency does - educating children, helping sick people get better, ensuring the trains run on time.  "Managing for compliance" - rules, regulations, targets - works for some kinds of tasks and people, but not others.  I conclude based on my own research and that of many others that in some contexts what I call "managing for empowerment" - allowing autonomy, cultivating competence, and creating connection to peers and purpose - is more likely to lead to better organizational performance. Compliance levers are useful; but we have been pulling those levers (and more or less only those levers) for a half-century now in our attempts to improve Government. In all the many places that hasn't worked, it's time to try something else. More about Mission Driven Bureaucrats can be found here, and the introductory chapter is open access here.  If you're interested in joining the mailing list or getting in touch about Mission Driven Bureaucrats, that's here.

From 2023-8 I'm the Principal Investigator on Relational State Capacity, a European Research Council-awarded five year exploration of state capacity which argues we need to move beyond simply seeing state capacity as the technical ability of the state to "make" or "deliver" things. Public welfare improvement often involves not just technical, but also social, infrastructure (e.g. developing the best COVID vaccines or contact tracing system will not lead to desired public health outcomes without citizens taking vaccines or responding accurately to contact tracers). I think we will better be able to understand and build the state's capacity to make citizens' lives better if we conceive of capacity as in part a function of the relationship (and relational contract) between citizens and state agents.

I'm a member of Georgetown's Better Government Lab; a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development; an associate of Harvard's Building State Capability Program; an SNF Agora Faculty Affiliate; a member of the Scholars Strategy Network; a senior fellow at Artha Global; and on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Policy, amongst other appointments.  I've had the impact of my work recognized in a variety of fora, including lists of the 100 most influential academics in government and 50 most influential researchers shaping 21st century politicians. If you're a public servant or leader and believe my work might be of benefit to your team or agency, please don't hesitate to get in touch and explore if we at Georgetown's Better Government Lab can support you.

Outside the academy I was special assistant, then advisor, to successive Ministers of Finance (Liberia); ran a local nonprofit focused on helping post-conflict youth realize the power of their own ideas through agricultural entrepreneurship (East Timor); and have worked for a number of local and international NGOs. I've lived, worked, and/or done research in Bangladesh, East Timor, India, Israel, Liberia, The Netherlands, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Thailand, the UK, and the USA. A proud Detroiter, I hold a BA from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!), am a "Woo" (alum of Princeton's SPIA, despite receiving no degree; exited to take employment with the Sirleaf administration in Liberia), and hold a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.