Professor Mark Evans
Role: Director
Department: ANZSOG Institute for Governance
Research Themes
Creating and delivering Public Value (leader)
Machinery of Government
Integrity and Public Administration
Local Government
About Me
Professor Mark Evans is the Director of the ANZSOG Institute for Governance. This role draws on Mark’s considerable international experience in supporting and training senior civil servants and in evaluating public policy programs. The emphasis of his work at ANZSOG is fourfold: the provision of the ANZSOG governments with strategic training and research support; the development of short courses in conflict transformation; the development of an international MPA program; and the provision of research on different aspects of institution-building and governance.
Before taking this role, Mark was Director of York MPA and professional training programs at the University of York in the United Kingdom. Between 1998 and 2009 Mark played a central strategic role in the development of the department’s graduate school and the creation of three successful interdisciplinary research centres - York MPA and professional training programmes, Politics, Economics and Philosophy and Post-war Reconstruction and Development.
Mark has also played an international role in supporting good administrative practices in public administration in developed and developing contexts as well as the reconstruction of public administration in war-torn societies. He has delivered training and managed evaluation projects on behalf of the World Bank, United Nations agencies, the European Union, the Consortium of Humanitarian Affairs in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the British Council and the West Asia and North Africa Forum, as well as government departments such as: the UK’s Cabinet Office and departments for International Development, Work and Pensions, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; China’s National School of Administration and Social and Economic Reform Commission and others. Since he has been in Australia he has provided professional development support to the ACT government, DAFF and AUSAID.
About Professor Mark Evans
Qualilfications
BA (Honours), ‘First Class’, Government, 1988 (Essex)
PhD Government, 1994 (Essex/Strathclyde)
Research and Scholarship
Mark’s published research focuses on four areas of concern: public administration and public policy; policy analysis; evaluating the impact of processes of globalisation on domestic policy formation; and, post-war reconstruction and development. The research theme that binds all of these areas together is my interest in institution-building and processes of governance.
Editorial duties
| 1994 | Editor, Caledonian Papers in the Social Sciences Papers 1 - 21 |
| 1994 - 2000 | Editor, York Working Papers, York Papers in Policy and Politics 1-17 |
| 1996 to the present | British and American Politics texts reviewer for Longmans/Addison Wesley, Routledge, Sage and Houghton Mifflin Press |
| 1997 - 2001 | Editorial board member, Policy and Politics |
| 1997 to the present | Article reviewer for Policy and Politics, Environmental Politics, Global Governance, Governance, Public Administration, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, and Political Studies |
| 2000 to 2004 | Editorial board member, Public Policy and Administration |
| 2003 to the present | Editor, Policy Studies |
International Professional Development
Professor Evans has substantial international experience in strategic partnerships in professional development and research. Working with local partners in Afghanistan, China, Japan, European Union, Kazakhstan, Korea and Vietnam he has developed local capacity building programs, lectured and researched public administration in post-war reconstruction and development environments.
International Fellowships and Professorships
| 1997 | Visiting Fellow, Department of Government, University of Queensland |
| 2007 | Awarded honorary professorship, China National School of Administration |
| 2007 | Visiting Professor, School of Public Administration, Renmin University |
| 2009 | Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Hull Centre for British Politics |
| 2009 | Honorary Professorship, Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit, University of York |
Overseas Lectures
The following lectures were either given to members of overseas governments on the basis of a special invitation or were keynote addresses to conference panels.
| March 2001 | Back to Basics: Reconstruction and Development in Sri Lanka | Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies/ Government of Sri Lanka, Hilton Hotel, Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| April 2001 | Neo-liberalism and Policy Transfer in a Competition State: the Case of Welfare Reform in Britain | International Studies Association Regional Conference, Hong Kong |
| March 2002 | Evaluating the Social Impact of Equitization in Vietnam | Institute of Social Sciences, Hochiminh City, Vietnam |
| Market Reform and Policy Transfer | ||
| Sept 2002 | Policy Transfer in Global Perspective | University of ITESM, Mexico City, Mexico. |
| Dec 2002 | Understanding Governance and the Role of Public Administration | Keynote lectures delivered to the Afghan Assistance Coordination Authority, |
| Transparency and Accountability | Kabul, Afghanistan | |
| Policy Transfer in Global Perspective | ||
| Key Challenges in Public Administration and Development | ||
| Policy Evaluation and Post-war Reconstruction | ||
| Change Management | ||
| March 2003 | Evaluating the Social Impact of Equitization in Vietnam | Keynote lectures delivered to the Confederation of Labour, |
| Market Reform in Comparative Perspective | Hochiminh City Vietnam | |
| April 2003 | Policy Transfer in Global Perspective | Keynote lectures delivered to the National School for Public Administration, |
| Administrative Reform in the UK | Beijing, China | |
| April 2004 | Administrative Reform in Comparative Perspective | National School for Public Administration, Beijing, China |
| Globalisation, New Labour and the Rise of the British Competition State | Keynote lectures delivered to the Central Party School, Beijing, China | |
| The New Governance: Positive and Negative Lessons for China | Xi’An Provincial Government Training College, Xi’An, China | |
| Oct 2004 | Studying Public Administration in the UK: a York Perspective | British Council Exhibition, Beijing, China |
| Understanding UK Governance | Department of Public Administration, keynote lectures delivered to the Renmin University, Beijing, China | |
| Using Policy Transfer as a Tool for Rational Policy-making | Keynote lecture delivered to the Central Party School, Beijing, China | |
| Policy Transfer in Global Perspective | Keynote lecture delivered at WWUN conference ‘Strategic Management in Urban Governance’ at Zhejiang University, Hanzhou | |
| May 2005 | Understanding UK Governance | Keynote lecture delivered to the Department of Public Administration, Renmin University, Beijing, China |
| Policy Transfer in Global Perspective | Keynote lecture delivered to the Department of Political Science, Peking University, Beijing, China | |
| Oct 2005 | Mid-term Evaluation of the NSP: Theory and Method | Keynote lecture delivered to the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Rural Affairs, Kabul |
| March 2006 | Mid-term Evaluation of the NSP: Preliminary Findings | Keynote lecture delivered to the World Bank and the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Rural Affairs, Kabul |
| May 2006 | Towards Public Value Management | Keynote lecture delivered to the Department of Public Administration, Nanjing University, Nanjing |
| Nov 2006 | The World Bank and Post-war Reconstruction: the Case of Afghanistan’s National Solidarity Programme | Keynote lecture delivered at the British Council Exhibition, Tokyo |
| March 2007 | The World Bank and Post-war Reconstruction: the Case of Afghanistan’s National Solidarity Programme | Keynote lecture delivered to the Institute of Governance and Public Management, Warwick University |
| May 2007 | Understanding Embedded Corruption in Public Administration – Some Comparative Observations | Conference on , Transparency International/International Business Solutions/School of Public Administration, Renmin University, Beijing |
| Towards Public Value? Negotiating the Problems of Networked Governance | Invited lecture, First Sino-European Conference on Public Administration, School of Public Administration, Renmin University, Beijing | |
| New Directions in Chinese and European Public Administration | ||
| Post-war Reconstruction and the World Bank: the Case of Afghanistan’s National Solidarity Programme | Invited lecture, School of Public Administration, Zhengzhou University | |
| Towards Public Value? Administrative Reform in the UK | Invited lecture, National Development and Reform Commission, PRP China, Beijing | |
| June 2007 | New Labour and the Rise of the New Constitutionalism | Symposium on “Ten Years of New Labour”, Centre for British Politics, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Hull |
| Nov 2007 | Negotiating the Problems of Network Governance | China-Europe Public Administration Conference, China National School of Administration |
| March 2008 | ‘A Project in Search of a Bid Idea?’ Gordon Brown and Public Services Reform | Symposium on ‘the Brown Effect’, Centre for British Politics, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Hull |
| April 2008 | New Labour and the Rise of the New Constitutionalism | PSA Conference, Swansea |
| Post-war Reconstruction and the World Bank: the Case of Afghanistan’s National Solidarity Programme | ||
| April 2008 | Administrative Reform in International Perspective | Special workshop on ‘Administrative Reform’ convened for the PM of Kazakhstan, Astana |
| Performance Measurement and Service Delivery | ||
| Principles and Practice in E-Governance | ||
| July 2008 | Administrative Reform in International Perspective | Keynote lecture at TIRI’s Integrity in Public Administration Conference, Central European University, Budapest |
| Sept 2008 | Cameron’s Competition State | Symposium on ‘Cameron’s Conservatives’, Centre for British Politics, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Hull |
Research Funding
| 1989-92 | Recipient of an Economic and Social Research Council Studentship Grant for doctoral studies |
| 1992-93 | Recipient of £2,500 Glasgow Caledonian University Research Development Funding for a membership survey of Charter 8 |
| 1996 | Recipient of £5,000 Nuffield Foundation Research Grant to study evolving policy networks in local governance in the York region |
| 1999-2001 | Recipient of £20,000 ESRC Research Seminar funding for a series of seminars on Policy Transfer and the Future of Governance (with D. Dolowitz and D. Marsh) |
| 1998-2006 | Provost allowance, recipient of central University funding to support scholarly activity (£9,400 per annum) |
| 2000 | Recipient of ESRC research training funding (£8,000) for Graduate Easter School entitled ‘Evaluating Cutting Edge Social Science Research’ |
| 2001 | Recipient of £6,000 research funding from the Joint University Council of the Applied Social Sciences (JUC) for the compilation of a research data base on Public Administration and Public Policy research |
| 2001 | Recipient of £5,000 JUC research training funding for a Graduate Easter School entitled ‘Studying the Europeanisation of British Public Policy’ |
| 2001 | Recipient of £40,000 research funding from the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (Sri Lanka) and NORAD (Sri Lanka) for a research project entitled, ‘Back to Basics: Reconstruction and Development in Sri Lanka’, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka (with Professor Sultan Barakat) |
| 2002 | Recipient of £5,000 British Council Exploratory Link funding with Institute of Social Sciences in Hochiminh City, Vietnam |
| 2002 | Recipient of £8, 000 ESRC research training funding to support a ‘Professional Practice Conference’ at the PAC Annual Conference, 2-4 September 2002, University of York |
| 2002 | Recipient of European Commission Funding for a project entitled ‘Enhancing the Capacity of the Afghan Public Administration’ with Professor Sultan Barakat (£160,184) |
| 2002 to 2006 | Recipient of British Council/DFID Six Year Link funding with Institute of Social Sciences in Hochiminh City, Vietnam (£160,000) |
| 2003 | Recipient of £14,000 from the E-University to develop on-line text for the module Policy-making and Policy Processes |
| 2003 to 2008 | Recipient of £8,000 per annum to support editorship activities for the journal Policy Studies (£40,000) |
| 2004 | Recipient of £20,000 WUN funding to support a conference at Zhejiang University entitled ‘Strategic Management in Urban Governance’ |
| 2005-2006 | Recipient (with S. Barakat) of $750,000 from the World Bank to evaluate the National Solidarity Programme in Afghanistan |
| 2006-2007 | Recipient of £10,000 to develop on-line texts in Public Administration and Development and Understanding Governance |
| 2007 | Honorary Visiting Professorship, Renmin University, Beijing – £7,000 travel and subsistence grant, Department of Personnel, Renmin University |
| 2008-2010 | Member of successful York PRDU-Cowie-CMI consortium bid to work as a preferred partner with the Department for International Development (thus far this has involved one project supporting DFID’s new country strategy for Afghanistan – £140,000) |
| 2009-2012 | ‘Social Cohesion in the WANA Region’ (US$240,000) with Professor Sultan Barakat, York; Professor Juho Saari, University of Eastern Finland and Professor Olli Kangas, Head of Research Department, Social Insurance Institution of Finland |
| 2009-2013 | Bid member Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Government, Convenor of Executive Leadership Program |
Research Students and Postdocs
| Year | Title | Student | Present Occupation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | New Public Management and Policy Transfer in south-East Asia | Richard Common | Senior Lecturer, University of Manchester |
| 1999 | Urban Regimes in Comparative Perspective | Jonathan Davies | Senior Lecturer, Warwick University |
| 1999 | Implementing New Public Management in Multi-level Governance | Kirsten Barnes | Civil Servant working in Social Exclusion Unit |
| 2001 | The Privatisation of Malaysian Airlines: A Policy Transfer Perspective | Khariah Mohktar | Senior Lecturer, Malaysia University |
| 2002 | Globalisation, Europeanisation and Policy Transfer | Stella Ladi | Lecturer, Sheffield University |
| 2002 | Media Policy Networks in Greece and Britain: A dialectical approach | Georgia Chondroleou | Senior Civil Servant, Finance Ministry, Greece/lecturer Open University |
| 2002 | Social Exclusion in Rural England | Roger Pierce | Lecturer, University of York |
| 2003 | Policy Networks and Transport Policy in Japan | Toshi Yokumura | Senior Civil Servant, Transport Ministry, Japan |
| 2006 | The OECD, Administrative Reform and Policy Transfer in Mexico | Oscar Huerta Melchor | Policy Advisor, OECD Paris |
| 2007 | The Alternative Economic Strategy | Ed Rooksby | Lecturer, University of Leeds |
| 2008 | Local Participation and Health Service Reform in the UK: the Case of Patient-involvement Forums | Fiona Aspinal | Research Fellow, Health Sciences, York |
| 2008 | Gender Mainstreaming in English Local Government | Sharleene Bibbings | Local Government Policy Advisor, York City Council |
| 2008 | Electoral administration as statecraft: a comparative approach | Toby James | Lecturer, Politics, Swansea University |
| 2009 | Hollowing-out as Statecraft: the Case of Administrative Reform in China | Hongxia Chai | Senior Lecturer, China National School of Administration |
| 2009 | Selina Peters | Policy Officer, Africa Development Bank |
Teaching and the Promotion of learning
Professor Evans has played a prominent role in development of undergraduate, postgraduate and professional training programs. At the postgraduate level Professor Evans designed:
- a new MPA and MPA in International Development and associated professional training programmes;
- a joint Erasmus Mundus MA in Public Policy with IBEI in Barcelona, ISS in the Hague and the Central European University;
- co-designed York’s new MA in International Human Rights Law (with Dr Michael Kearney);
- designed an innovative ‘1 plus 1’ Masters degree in Political Research with Ritsumeikan University in Japan;
- the new Foundation degree in Government for the Cabinet Office for launch in October 2008; and
- three innovative on-line Masters modules on Policy Analysis, Public Administration and Development and Understanding Governance.
Most recently, Professor Evans has designed an ‘MPA with Public Service Placement’ programme for the Ministry of Public Administration and Services in South Korea (the MPA plus a second year of professional placement activities) and a nine month postgraduate certificate for Romanian civil servants on the EU Phare Programme.
Professor Evans has also played an international role in supporting best practice in public administration in developed and developing contexts as well as the reconstruction of public administration in war-torn societies. This has been reflected in research and training activities as well as practical engagement with various professional bodies. He has acted as an advisor to supranational institutions, United Nations agencies and Non-Governmental Organisations including: the European Union, the Consortium of Humanitarian Affairs in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the British Council, as well as government departments and public organisations in countries such as Afghanistan, China, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.
Undergraduate modules
Professor Evans has taught
- Year 1 — The Democratic Tradition: A Comparative Introduction to American and British Politics now replaced by The Democratic Tradition: Power and Institutions (250 students)
- Year 1 – Great Texts
- Year 1 – Undergraduate Research Methods
- Year 2 Who Runs Britain? — this is a specialist British politics module (60 students)
- Year 3 Advanced Policy Analysis — this is a compulsory module for Politics and Social Policy students (20 students)
Postgraduate modules
Professor Evans has taught modules in programmes in Public Administration, Public Administration and International Development, Public Administration and Public Policy, Post-war Recovery Studies and Conflict Governance and Development. These include:
- Understanding Governance
- Policy Analysis
- Public Management and Delivery
- Public Administration and Development
- Constitution-making and Human Rights in the UK
- Institution-building and Post-war Reconstruction
- Programme Evaluation in Post-conflict States
Mark's publications are still being imported into the Institute's database.