UofG Centre for Public Policy

15 October 2025: Following her contribution to the 2025 EGPA conference in Glasgow, Professor Sabine Kuhlmann writes about the ‘polycrises’ era – from COVID-19 to geopolitical conflicts - and how prepared public administration in Europe is to face it.

Blog by Professor Sabine Kuhlmann, Universität Potsdam

Public administrations across Europe and beyond are confronted with crises on a daily basis. However, since the 2020s the crisis landscape is characterized by what has been called polycrises: crises that take place together, interact with each other, their duration is unknown and put institutions through a test. From climate related disasters to migration waves, COVID-19 and pandemics, financial instability and geopolitical conflicts, the density, complexity and duration of the challenges faced by governments and public administrators are unprecedent in such nature. The question is no longer whether a crisis might take place, but how prepared public administration in Europe is to face them without being overwhelmed nor overloaded.

Administrative systems are under immense pressure from the polycrisis dynamics. They demand government act immediately to address sudden shocks, while simultaneously managing chronic stressors. Such overlapping and interlinked crises call for more flexible institutions, which should be able to change priorities, reallocate resources, capacities and deliver institutional strategies. Compartmentalized structures and reactive routines are usually unprepared for this dynamic and ever-changing reality. In its place, adaptative multi-actor approaches and governance, cross-sectoral coordination, and inter-governmental collaboration are essential. Crisis management needs to be embedded in everyday service delivery, especially for sub-national administrations.

The German federal system shows both the opportunities and limitations institutional design has in the current turbulent times.

On one hand, the decentralized federal system illustrates the flexibility and agility such design offers. In a hugely decentralized institutional setting, resilience is fostered, because states and localities enjoy high discretion and autonomy. They act as “real-life laboratories” and can experiment with different solutions, for example, regarding crisis management or administrative digitalization. Strong local self-government also enables horizontal coordination, for example, between different policy sectors, such as public health, schools, social welfare. Quick resources allocation and pragmatic responses are possible because of the proximity to local problems, strong local leadership/mayors, and discretion in local decision-making - all of which enhance both the acceptance (by citizens and other relevant actors) and legitimacy of crisis measures.

On the other hand, federalism has high coordination costs and limits central implementation and managerial capacity in times of crisis. In addition, there is a lack of incentives to encourage unbureaucratic behavior, that alongside a strong legalistic administrative culture, with a tendency to over-regulate and avoid risk, may inhibit the needed agility. This ongoing tension evidences the challenge for European public administration: how to balance a pragmatic and adaptative governance that is embedded in each administrative culture.

The research community is affected by real-life challenges. Geopolitical tensions and divisions that interrupt long-standing partnerships, austerity measures, fundings cuts and publishing industry pressures make collaboration more difficult and enhance regional differences with a noticeable underrepresentation from scholars from other regions. For example, we observe that certain regions (Eastern Europe, Global South) are less represented at our conferences than Western countries.

The policy of cutbacks in some countries also makes it more difficult for younger researchers, for example, to finance their travel and present at conferences. Finally, tensions also arise from the fact that some researchers want to focus more on Europe and the academic sphere, while others want to anchor administrative science in a global community and also want to cooperate more closely with practitioners. These dynamics present a risk of fragmentation for the European public administration academic field and community.

Against this background, the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) plays a key role in building bridges and creating fora of dialogue across borders where politics often falls short. This year's 2025 EGPA Annual Conference at the University of Glasgow was an example of how we can come together to tackle challenges together, share ideas and solutions and build lasting connections.

Author

Sabine Kuhlmann is Professor at the University of Potsdam.

Professor Kuhlmann was part of the plenary panel titled EU Relations in Turbulent Times at the 2025 European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) in Glasgow, chaired by the Centre for Public Policy’s Professor Nicola McEwen.

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First published: 15 October 2025