(RSC) Relational State Capacity: Rethinking State Capacity and Welfare Delivery in the Developing World
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Department Name: Political Science
Abstract
Citizens' welfare depends on the state's capacity to generate public goods like health care, education, and safety. State capacity has traditionally been thought of as the state's ability to deliver to citizens; capacity is conventionally operationalized and measured by the presence of physical infrastructure (e.g. roads, planes, clinics), public servants (e.g. teachers per capita), or the state's technical capacities (e.g. having advanced disease surveillance abilities.
The Relational State Capacity (RSC) project builds on and draws in a range of disciplines in suggesting a new manner of conceptualizing what capacity in fact "is" - relational contracts, relations of trust and mutual accountability between citizens and public servants. In contrast with conventional approaches, this perspective brings the role of citizens - and their active participation in achieving policy outcomes - to the forefront (e.g. COVID vaccine uptake; citizen information provision to police to identify perpetrators and enhance public safety). RSC will be particularly useful in understanding the state's ability to produce welfare outcomes (and thus what can be done to improve citizen welfare) in the many contexts the state cannot just 'deliver to' citizens, but needs to 'work with' them.
Using quantitative (observational econometric analysis; meta-analysis; pilot interventions) and qualitative (interviews and case study process tracing) methods, this project will:
1) define RSC, develop methodologies and measures for the systematic study of RSC;
2) validate RSC's relationship with substantive welfare outcomes and
3) generate knowledge regarding how, and under what circumstances, RSC emerges and can be strengthened;
4) Catalyze the formation of an epistemic community engaging with RSC-related questions of both theoretical and practical relevance in efforts to improve the lives of some of the world's poorest citizens.
The Relational State Capacity (RSC) project builds on and draws in a range of disciplines in suggesting a new manner of conceptualizing what capacity in fact "is" - relational contracts, relations of trust and mutual accountability between citizens and public servants. In contrast with conventional approaches, this perspective brings the role of citizens - and their active participation in achieving policy outcomes - to the forefront (e.g. COVID vaccine uptake; citizen information provision to police to identify perpetrators and enhance public safety). RSC will be particularly useful in understanding the state's ability to produce welfare outcomes (and thus what can be done to improve citizen welfare) in the many contexts the state cannot just 'deliver to' citizens, but needs to 'work with' them.
Using quantitative (observational econometric analysis; meta-analysis; pilot interventions) and qualitative (interviews and case study process tracing) methods, this project will:
1) define RSC, develop methodologies and measures for the systematic study of RSC;
2) validate RSC's relationship with substantive welfare outcomes and
3) generate knowledge regarding how, and under what circumstances, RSC emerges and can be strengthened;
4) Catalyze the formation of an epistemic community engaging with RSC-related questions of both theoretical and practical relevance in efforts to improve the lives of some of the world's poorest citizens.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Daniel Honig (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
| Description | Advising the design of the Government of Meghalaya's Human Development Leadership Program's (HDLP) intervention |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| Impact | Changing the design of the HDLP visits helps the government to improve the nature and quality of interactions that take place between citizens and frontline workers in their area. Improved quality of interactions between a citizen and government worker builds trust, empathy, recognition between them, and increases the potential of forming a reciprocal relationship between the citizen and bureaucrat that will enable them both to work towards creating welfare outcomes. |
| Description | Chair of the Advisory Group to the Slater Report on Education |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Ministerial Roundtable: Reforming Public Services (UK) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | Led to changes in the UK Government Public Sector Reform strategy, and a greater focus on empowering civil servants. |
| Description | Provided input into the Public Sector Reform process to cabinet office |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | Incorporation into the strategy of alternative (not top-down) approaches to accountability and building stronger relationships between state agents and citizens. |
| Title | State Agent-Citizen interactions Dataset for RSC |
| Description | The State Agent-Citizen Interactions Dataset is the product of an analysis of wide-ranging literature on state-society relations. We read the literature inductively to reveal the nature and context of state agent and citizen interactions in the processes of public service design and delivery. Thirty-two cases documenting various types of state agent-citizen interactions are mapped against our framework comprising of ten dimensions that explain the context of and characterize the nature of interaction between two actors. We have restricted the database to studies that provide detailed case information on the context of the study and the program/intervention being studied, and where results include variables we believe are strongly predictive of RSC. Detailed information on the dimensions is available as the Framework on Sheet 1 of the attached data file. This dataset is an ongoing initiative of the Relational State Capacity project, an ERC-awarded and UKRI-funded (via the Horizon 2020 backstop) five-year grant (EP/Y010388/1) running through August 2028. Our team will be updating the dataset as we encounter more relevant studies and cases during the course of the RSC program. This dataset can be cited as Gupta, Vernica, Sharma, Rahul Karnamadakala, Honig, Dan, Krishnamurthy, Mekhala. 2025. "State Agent-Citizen Interactions Dataset for RSC." https://relationalstatecapacity.com/. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This dataset compiles and analyzes existing evidence on relational state capacity and allows researchers to understand the dynamics of state agent-citizen relationships through existing literature to guide future studies of relational state capacity. |
| URL | https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/KKCMJL |
| Description | Berlin Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | As a keynote speaker at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival, Dan Honig shared insights from his work on relational state capacity with a wide audience of over 2000 people from 50 countries. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://creativebureaucracy.org/sites/default/files/medien/22/dokumente/digital-final-bureaucracy-fe... |
| Description | Empowering civil servants to deliver missions in government: Global Governent Forum's Leading Questions podcast with Dr Dan Honig |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this interview with Richard Johnstone, host of Global Government Forum's Leading Questions podcast, Dan Honig explained how government should empower public servants through allowing autonomy, cultivating competence and creating connection to peers and purpose. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.globalgovernmentforum.com/empowering-civil-servants-to-deliver-missions-in-government-gg... |
| Description | Fireside Chat at a private home (Betsy Williams, founder of Emerging Public Leaders), interviewed by Washington Post's Bina Venkateraman. Attendees included leading policymakers (e.g. Antoinette Sayeh, then-Deputy Managing Director of the IMF; Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia; a number of former or current ministers and leading policymakers from multiple countries; etc. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A conversation with the Washington Post's Bina Venkataraman followed by Q&A reflected on how outcomes across the world could be effectively delivered if governments recruit public servants who inherently care for people and empower them. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://emergingpublicleaders.org/news-insights/mission-driven-bureaucrats-matter |
| Description | Harvard Kennedy School talk on Motivation and Purpose in the Public Sector 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Dan Honig was invited to an event co-hosted by Building State Capability and the People Lab to talk about motivation and purpose in the public sector. He presented his research on how empowerment-oriented practices can enhance the performance of public servants by helping them feel more connected with their mission. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://bsc.hks.harvard.edu/engage/events/motivation-and-purpose-in-the-public-sector/ |
| Description | Invitation to discuss Mission Driven Bureaucrats at World Bank Group's Governance Global Practice Book Talks |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dan Honig was invited by the World Bank Group to discuss his book on mission motivation in helping bureaucrats fulfill their public duties at the 'Governance Global Practice Book Talks'. These talks which happen at the World Bank HQ allow novel research on governance practices to reach broad audiences, including professional practitioners and policymakers who work to support and enable governments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2024/11/07/dan-honig-on-mission-driven-bureaucrats#1 |
| Description | Janaagraha Annual Conclave 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Janaagraha is an Indian not-for-profit working to transform quality of life in India's cities and towns. Janaagraha works with councillors and citizens to catalyse active citizenship in city neighbourhoods, and with governments to institute reforms to city-systems i.e. systemic reforms to governance of India's cities. The principal objective of Janaagraha's Annual Conclave is to advance thought leadership on city-systems reforms to build salience for a systems approach to governing India's cities. At the 2024 Annual Conclave, Mekhala Krishnamurthy from the RSC team contributed to the "Building State Capacities: A Framework at the Intersection of People, Process, and Finance" expert panel, focusing on the importance of relational state capacity for welfare service delivery and governance in cities and small towns. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Keynote Speaker at Digital Benefits Conference (BenCon) 2024 at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation, Georgetown University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Dan Honig was invited to discuss his work on public purpose and present findings from his book, Mission Driven Bureaucrats, to an audience of policymakers, practitioners and bureaucrats. These professionals form the core focus of Dan's work, making it an important audience to communicate his research to and gain comments from. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://digitalgovernmenthub.org/publications/bencon-2024-recap/#visions-for-the-future |
| Description | Keynote Speaker at the FWD50 Global Event on policymaking, technology, ethics, and invention |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The FWD50 is a global community of public servants, technologists, and civic innovators who aim to determine how technology can make society better. Dan Honig was invited to the 2024 annual event to present his findings on how facade control and accountability impede the public sector's ability to deliver. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Nesta 2024 Event: Unlocking better governance: Dan Honig in conversation with James Plunkett |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Nesta, a UK Innovation Agency for Social Good, organized a talk as a part of the Mission Public initiative co-organized with partners that help to define the techniques of mission-driven government. For this online event, they invited Dan Honig to talk with the Group's Chief Practices Officer James Plunkett, to explore the power of purpose in public service. They discussed the theory and practice of creating more responsive, effective, and humane government institutions. This talk will be of interest to those who work in government, policy, the civil service, the public sector or for those interested in improving how governments work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.nesta.org.uk/event/unlocking-better-governance-dan-honig-in-conversation-with-james-plun... |
| Description | Prajadhipok's Institute for Democracy Bangkok 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dan Honig presented insights on relational state capacity being practiced by frontline bureaucrats in Thailand. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation at Sydney University 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dan Honig was invited to talk about motivation and purpose in the public sector. The permanent secretary of the Department of Communities and Justice of New South Wales provided an introduction. Dan presented his research on how empowerment-oriented practices can enhance public servants' ability to deliver services by connecting them with their mission motivation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation at the Kyiv School of Economics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Dan Honig presented his work on mission motivation in bureaucrats to students at the Kyiv School of Economics. He separately met with the head of civil service of Ukraine to discuss civil service reform efforts by the government, and offer insights from his research on effective managerial practices for improving public services and building relational state capacity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Relational State Capacity (RSC) Website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Relational State Capacity (RSC) website is intended to be an online site for people to access and engage with the concept of RSC and learn from our project outputs. The website has been used to familiarize partners and interested individuals, including scholars and practitioners, with our programme of work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://relationalstatecapacity.com/ |
| Description | Relational State Capacity Forum, 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Relational State Capacity (RSC) Forum is intended to convene scholars from across a range of disciplines from whose work RSC as a nascent concept draws inspiration. For our first forum held in May 2024 in London, we brought together 24 scholars, 1 practitioner, and 3 students to share and discuss old and new insights on state-citizen relations, the social contract, trust in government, social accountability and community organizing, democracy, bureaucrat-citizen interactions, etc. The discussion contributed to refinements in the working paper on RSC, and helped disseminate the concept for use by other academics and practitioners. Through the forum, we hope to build and sustain an interdisciplinary community for thinking and learning about RSC beyond the scope of the project as well. For the RSC team, the Forum also provides an invaluable steering group as we test ideas, concepts, methods, and measurement tools. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Talk at Open Gov Hub 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dan Honig was invited to Open Gov Hub's Happy Hour talk in DC to discuss his work on mission driven bureuacrats. Open Gov Hub is an organisation with the aim of mobilizing stakeholders to empower citizens, which gathers audiences that are interested in learning about practices, empowerment-oriented management, than can enable better governance outcomes for citizens. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Talk at the US Office of Evaluation Sciences 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dan Honig gave a talk on mission driven bureaucrats and the need to build empowering environments to support public servants in doing their job. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Talk on "How Development Cooperation Can Support 'Managing For Empowerment' and Achieve Better Public Sector Performance"?at SweDev and SEI's dialogue series on development research |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dan Honig was invited to give a keynote talk on how development cooperation can support "management for empowerment" to achieve better development assistance. This event organized by Stockholm Environment Institute and Swedish Development Research Network brought together cutting-edge scholars and researchers for dialogues on development research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://swedev.dev/recording-how-development-cooperation-can-support-managing-for-empowerment-and-ac... |
| Description | Talk on "The Strength of Weak Tools and Clear Missions: De Facto Decentralization and the Tension Between Citizens' Welfare and Formal Instructions in Thai Districts" at Thammasat University, Bangkok |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Dan Honig presented his research on mission motivation by frontline bureaucrats in Thai districts at a seminar hosted by Thammasat University's Department of Economics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.econ.tu.ac.th/en/news/detail/535 |
| Description | UCL Policy Lab Book Launch for Mission Driven Bureaucrats |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The UCL Policy Lab organized an event for the launch of Dan Honig's new book, Mission Driven Bureaucrats, which helps redefine the role and mission of public servants. Dan spoke with leading representatives from politics, policy, and government to explore how we can build a new era of public service reform which is driven by mission and a commitment to both connection and delivery. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/events/2024/sep/book-launch-mission-driven-bureaucrats |
| Description | UCL Policy Lab: Britain Renewed |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Britain Renewed is a one-day international conference hosted by the UCL Policy Lab, The Future Governance Forum, Citizens UK, Power to Change and more. In the year of the general election year, the conference convened leading experts and practitioners from around the world to explore a new approach to governing: one grounded in the power of human relationships and the need to respect the wisdom and insights of people of all backgrounds. Britain Renewed is focussed on the central idea of how a government that respects everyone could change the country. Mekhala Krishnamurthy from the RSC Team was specifically invited to talk and share insights from her work on the panel 'The Power of Relationships'. This section focused on whether the so-called "relational" turn in public service design and delivery could transform British public services after the general election. The discussion explored how we can break out of the top-down, centralizing approach so familiar to overly bureaucratized public service delivery without falling into an excessively commercial, market-driven alternative. The purpose was to examine the essence of the transformational power of more relational approaches to public services; where the most exciting examples are to be found in the world today; and what obstacles need to be removed in the UK and elsewhere in order for their potential to be fulfilled. This engagement was extremely suitable for socializing RSC amongst audiences with stakes and interest in the topic, and a fantastic opportunity to develop powerful allies for the future of this work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/sites/policy_lab/files/britain_renwed_programme.pdf |
| Description | Workshop on Human Development Leadership Programme (HDLP) in Meghalaya, 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A workshop was convened by Mr. Sampath Kumar, IAS, the Development Commissioner of the Government of Meghalaya, India, who is spearheading the Human Leadership Development Programme for frontline staff in the state. This programme mobilizes frontline workers at the block level to interact with citizens from the villages in their block to form mutual trust, empathy, credibility, clarity and reciprocal recognition in an effort to develop relational state capacity. In this workshop, representatives from all districts in the state were invited to give status updates from the programme and discuss developments and outcomes. Dr. Rahul K Sharma from the RSC Team was invited to understand the status of the programme and make recommendations to improve its effectiveness. This engagement led to a first cut of recommendations from the RSC team to the Government of Meghalaya on building RSC at the frontline of the government, and formed a part of a longer sustained partnership with the government to study and improve the program. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Workshop on Relational State Capacity at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A closed workshop with five discussants and four members of the RSC team was held in November 2023 at the Centre for Policy Research to present initial iterations of the concept of Relational State Capacity. The five discussants were scholars and practitioners representing diverse sub-fields in public administration from social protection to urban governance. During this discussion we received important feedback, comments, and conceptual insights into RSC and its possible operationalization. This presentation and the its outcomes were important in the development of the first working paper. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |