No time for cynicism Review essay on BoswellJohn (2023), Magical Thinking in Public Policy: Why Naïve Ideals about Better Policymaking Persist in Cynical Times. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 184 pages. ISBN 978-0-19-284878-9.

In his book Magical Thinking in Public Policy , John Boswell shows how and why naïve ideals about better policymaking persist in the practice of such policymaking. Addressing a range of cases studied in the health sector in the United Kingdom, Boswell evidences that policy actors appear well aware of the fragility of the ideas they trade in. In the book, however, the question largely remains open what magic concepts such as ‘evidence-based policymaking’ or ‘transparency’ can offer in a scholarly programmatic sense. While the argument illuminates how magical thinking works in policy practice, the author is rather silent on the functions of magic concepts in academia. For understanding and explaining what happens, more is needed than conceptual innovation. An analysis could start with the meta-question of what needs explanation at all , particularly in the socio-political contexts clearly changing today. These changing contexts also imply that the consequences for the Public Administration curriculum need to be reflected upon.