Dan Honig

Dan is an associate professor at Georgetown University and University College London. He tries to center the human(s) in everything he does: research, teaching, consulting, day to day interactions.  In his 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).

Dan's current focus is "Relational 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. 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. For more see relationalstatecapacity.com.

Dan's last book, Mission Driven Bureaucrats (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 .  "Managing for compliance" - rules, regulations, targets - works for some kinds of tasks and people, but not others. The book draws from Dan's research and that of many others to argue that in some contexts  "managing for empowerment" - allowing autonomy, cultivating competence, and creating connection to peers and purpose - is more likely to lead to better organizational performance. For more on the book please see missiondrivenbureaucrats.com.