The curious public administrator and positive public administration: two frameworks to guide policy design and practice

Theory in policy design and public administration is ill-equipped to address the challenges associated the current crises of government, including democratic backsliding and an erosion of public trust. The major theories in the field of policy design and implementation have focused on the failures of government and promoted a negative bias against the public sector. This paper argues for theory to refocus on positivity and curiosity to identify what works in government and develop ideas to diffuse those successes. The paper does this by arguing for a combining of two theoretical frameworks, Positive Public Administration and the Curious Public Administrator. After defining these two frameworks and discussing their evolutions, the paper presents possible positive outcomes associated with combining them into theory concerned with both positivity and curiosity in public administration.