SUPA: Sustaining Public Administration in Modern Democracies
@supaproject.bsky.social
SUPA tackles administrative overburdening in advanced democracies, where rule growth outpaces capacity. Its insights aim to boost efficiency. Funded by Horizon Europe. https://www.supa.uio.no/
A few SUPA folks at IWPP5 in Ottawa last week — marking 20 years of Regulation & Governance, with scholars from five continents. Tuva Lima Molde on how policy growth reshapes administrative structures, and Nir Kosti on measuring regulation itself. All beautifully organised by Yves.
Two SUPA panels on EU regulatory growth at #SGEU2026 in Catania 📸 Nir Kosti on complexity vs. discretion, Brigitte Pircher @brigittepircher.bsky.social on how "Better Regulation" quietly changed what it means. Sun, Sicily, and rule stocks — not a bad combo.
The SUPA team at #EPSS2026! Yesterday: Regulatory Growth: Implementation and Outcomes, chaired by B. Pircher. Five papers, plenty of fruitful exchange. Round two on Saturday: Regulatory Growth: Drivers and Design, chaired by X. Fernández-i-Marín. Come join us! epssnet.org/belfast-2026/
A clean framework for comparing what countries actually do on climate — beyond headline pledges. New in the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis @jcpaicpa.bsky.social by SUPA's X. Fernández-i-Marín, C. Knill & Y. Steinebach (with M. Hinterleitner & D. Nachtigall). doi.org/10.1080/1387...
New in @jeppjournal.bsky.social: @dionyszink.bsky.social introduces *organizational corrosion* — the slow, self-reinforcing decay of public agencies under sustained overload. Illustrated with England's Environment Agency (deep into it) vs Ireland's EPA (largely spared). 📖 doi.org/10.1080/1350...
Two presentations, one big question: why do good political intentions get lost somewhere between ambition and reality? Today at the PBO seminar (UiO), Y. Steinebach and M. Nemčok @miroslavnemcok.bsky.social presented their recent research. Thanks to the PBO group at @uio.no for great feedback.
📢 CfP: "Politics of regulatory simplification in the EU" in @jeppjournal.bsky.social Guest editors: Steffen Hurka, Nir Kosti & Brigitte Pircher Abstracts by 22 July 2026 👇 think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/politics-of-regulatory-simplification-in-the-eu/
The Politics of Regulatory Simplification in the European Union: Actors, Processes and Outcomes
Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the Journal of European Public Policy on The politics of regulatory simplification in the European Union: actors, processes and outcomes
think.taylorandfrancis.com
Missed Yves Steinebach's appearance at the OECD Green Talks LIVE? Yves spoke on assessing policy effectiveness in an era of relentless policy growth. 🎦 The recording is out: oecd.org/en/events/2026/05/do-climate-policies-deliver-evidence-on-emissions-and-carbon-leakage.html
Do climate policies deliver? Evidence on emissions and carbon leakage
This Green Talks Live webinar discusses OECD climate policy data and its unique insights to support policy evaluation.
oecd.org
Two intense days in Oslo with the full SUPA consortium in one place 📸 Four panels of work-in-progress on the core questions driving the project — partners from Oslo, LMU Munich, Universitat de Barcelona, Södertörn, Zeppelin & Aarhus. More to come 👇
A few snapshots from Yves Steinebach's talk at Nordisk Administrativt Forbund 📸 A great deep dive into policy overload — why modern democracies keep stacking rules they can't actually implement, and what targeted simplification could look like.
ERC @erc.europa.eu spotlights Christoph Knill @cknill.bsky.social (LMU Munich @lmu.de) on policy accumulation — the very question SUPA was set up to tackle. Governments keep adding rules; capacity to implement them doesn't keep pace. Worth a read: erc.europa.eu/projects-sta...
📅 7 May: Yves Steinebach (University of Oslo @uio.no) gives a talk at Nordisk Administrativt Forbund on policy overload: why modern democracies keep producing more rules than they can implement. In Norwegian — kudos, Yves! www.nafnet.no/event-detail...
Moderne demokratier lager flere regler enn vi kan gape over: Kan vi forenkle målrettet? | Det nordiske adminis
Velkommen til neste møte i Det nordiske administrative forbund!
nafnet.no
🔥🔥🔥 Lenz @alexalenz.bsky.social, Knill @cknill.bsky.social & Steinebach in @wepsocial.bsky.social: policymakers are cognitively wired to add rules, not remove them. A survey experiment with 1,454 Norwegian politicians shows the bias is persistent and hard to debias. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0140...
A political scientist and a legal scholar walk into a conversation about #bureaucracy. No, really – it's an insightful read on why rules keep growing and how to prune them back without breaking what they protect. 👇 Knill @cknill.bsky.social & Burgi for @caslmu.bsky.social @lmu.de
Bureaucracy: Navigating rules and risk
Political scientist Christoph Knill and lawyer Martin Burgi on the meaning and downsides of bureaucracy
lmu.de
"One-in-one-out" sounds simple: new rule in, old rule out. But does it work? New in Public Administration Review: Fernández-i-Marín, Hinterleitner, Knill & Steinebach test Germany's scheme across 500+ laws. No reduction in restrictions. Even in Germany 🚨 doi.org/10.1111/puar.70107
“EU Better Regulation… doesn’t depoliticise. It reshapes politics.” From a presentation at SNES at Linköping University, Brigitte Pircher @brigittepircher.bsky.social (with Miranda Thulin & Swapnil Vashishtha) shows how “good regulation” is being redefined—without changing the rules.
Publishing isn’t enough. Kudos to Steffen Hurka @steffenhurka.bsky.social & Yves Steinebach for actually translating research on climate policy complexity into something people can read. More of this 👇 theloop.ecpr.eu/are-eu-clima...
Are EU climate policies becoming too complex to succeed?
Steffen Hurka and Yves Steinebach reveal that EU climate legislation has become so complex that even well-resourced member states struggle to put it into practice. Longer, more detailed laws create im...
theloop.ecpr.eu
Miroslav Nemčok @miroslavnemcok.bsky.social presenting at Queen Mary University of London. New paper, with Prachee Arora and Yves Steinebach, develops a measure of social policy complexity—capturing how legislation becomes harder to implement for administrations and navigate for citizens.
Why do “independent” institutions become politicized? In Regulation & Governance @reggovjournal.bsky.social, Brigitte Pircher @brigittepircher.bsky.social shows how institutional design itself can generate contestation. doi.org/10.1111/rego... Congrats, Brigitte! 👏
Important policy discussion at the German Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and State Modernization. Great to see Christoph Knill @cknill.bsky.social contributing to the debate on improving how regulatory burden is measured.
Nice to see researchers who don’t just publish papers but also translate their findings for a wider audience. In The Conversation @theconversation.com, SUPA's folks explain which climate policies actually reduce emissions. Worth a read: theconversation.com/which-climat...
Which climate policies actually make a difference? Our new analysis has the answer
Policy research often looks at measures in isolation, ignoring the complex bigger picture.
theconversation.com
Rules, competitiveness, and simplification on the agenda at SNS Center for Business and Policy Studies. Great to see Brigitte Pircher @brigittepircher.bsky.social bringing SUPA-relevant insights to the debate. 🎥 Full recording: www.sns.se/evenemang/re...
Policy ambition ⬆️ Administrative capacity ↔️ We’ve finished data collection in Norway—and the pattern is clear: far more policy tasks over time, but not a proportional increase in actors responsible for implementation. More rules. More work. Same system.
EU climate policy is getting more ambitious—and more complex. That undermines implementation. S. Hurka @steffenhurka.bsky.social and Y. Steinebach show in @climate-policy.bsky.social that legal complexity is linked to implementation deficits across the EU: doi.org/10.1080/1469... 👇⬇️ Explained ⬇️👇
“In addition, the work builds on decentralization theory and research on ‘policy overload’,” says Signy Irene Vabo (University of Oslo), presenting the Norwegian Municipal Commission’s report to Jens Stoltenberg and Bjørnar Skjæran. www.sv.uio.no/isv/om/aktue...
Signy Irene Vabo overrakte Kommunekommisjonens rapport - Institutt for statsvitenskap (ISV)
Kommunekommisjonen la nylig fram sin første rapport om statlig styring av kommunesektoren. På vegne av kommisjonen overrakte Signy Irene Vabo rapporten til finansminister Jens Stoltenberg og kommunal-...
sv.uio.no
We set ourselves a mammoth challenge: mapping policy changes down to the level of individual tasks and their allocation across actors. Such granular don’t exist. We take it VERY seriously. Therefore, our research assistants met to calibrate coding practices to ensure our data are reliable.
‼️Join Brigitte Pircher @brigittepircher.bsky.social in an important debate on administrative burden reduction. Brigitte will present fresh insights from the SUPA project on regulation, administrative capacity, and implementation challenges. Details: www.sns.se/evenemang/re...
🎉 Big congratulations! SUPA's WP co-PI Alexa Lenz @alexalenz.bsky.social has won the Gördeler Prize 2026 for her PhD on municipal crisis management — highlighting how local governments can stay effective and legitimate in times of crisis. 👏 Well deserved! 🔗 publicgovernance.de/html/de/Carl...
‼️Research impact in action ‼️ Our climate policy paper is now in the top 5% on @altmetric.com and covered by 28 news outlets - including @eurekalert.bsky.social, @scienmag.bsky.social, @idw-online.de, plus many national and regional outlets across Europe.
SUPA: Sustaining Public Administration in Modern Democracies@supaproject.bsky.social · 6mo ago🚨 Fresh out of the oven 🚨 New #SUPA paper on which climate policies work “in all seasons,” even as policy mixes keep growing. Evidence from 40 countries. ⬇️⬇️⬇️
🚨 Fresh out of the oven 🚨 New #SUPA paper on which climate policies work “in all seasons,” even as policy mixes keep growing. Evidence from 40 countries. ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Climate Policy Journal@climate-policy.bsky.social · 6mo ago🔓️ Using a new methodological toolkit which evaluates individual climate policies within expanding policy mixes, Fernández-i-Marín et al. identify a list of essential #climatepolicy measures that are effective across all contexts - read below⬇️