Dr Alastair Stark
Associate Professor
School of Political Science and International Studies
Convenor, Master of Governance and Public Policy
Director Graduate Centre
+61 7 336 52655
Researcher biography
Alastair is a public policy scholar, a crisis management expert and has an ongoing interest in the institutionalization of participatory modes of governance. His current policy research examines the role that institutional amnesia plays in the policy process, his crisis management research has been focused upon the relationship between public inquiries and lesson-learning, and in relation to participatory governance, he is currently examining the validity of different forms of deliberative democracy in the context of Australian environmental policy. Alastair has published widely in high-ranking international journals and is the recipient of the Mayer Prize (best paper in the Australian Journal of Political Science) and the Lasswell Prize (best paper in Policy Sciences). He has authored three books, won three large-scale Australian Research Council Discovery grants and is always looking for outstanding students who may be interested in completing PhDs in relation to the topics outlined above.
Books
Stark, Alastair and Yates, Sophie (2024). Public inquiries and policy design. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781009286879
Stark, Alastair (2018). Public inquiries, policy learning, and the threat of future crises. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198831990.001.0001
Drennan, Lynn, McConnell, Allan and Stark, Alastair (2015). Risk and crisis management in the public sector. 2nd ed. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315816456
Book Chapters
Stark, Alastair (2023). Measuring public inquiry success. New directions in royal commissions and public inquiries: do we need them?. (pp. 195-215) edited by Scott Prasser. Australia: Connor Court.
Stark, Alastair (2021). Policy learning in the Australian public service. The Oxford handbook of Australian politics. (pp. 397-414) edited by Jenny M. Lewis and Anne Tiernan. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198805465.013.24
Stark, Alastair (2019). Institutional Amnesia and Crisis Management Analysis. Oxford Encyclopedia of Crisis Analysis. (pp. 1-15) edited by Denis Fischbacher-Smith, Sanneke Kuipers, Allan McConnell and John Thomas Preston. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1526
Journal Articles
Stark, Alastair (2024). Institutional Amnesia in Government : How much is enough?. Policy Quarterly, 20 (1), 3-9. doi: 10.26686/pq.v20i1.9046
Stark, Alastair and van der Arend, Jenny (2023). The traveller's guide to policy learning. Journal of European Public Policy, 1-22. doi: 10.1080/13501763.2023.2243997
Stark, Alastair, Punter, Helen and Zarrabi, Behnaz (2023). A return to the classics? The implementation of royal commissions in Australia. Australian Journal of Political Science, 58 (1), 19-36. doi: 10.1080/10361146.2022.2117017
Ball, Sarah, McConnell, Allan and Stark, Alastair (2022). Dramaturgy and crisis management: a third act. Public Administration, 100 (3) padm.12775, 585-599. doi: 10.1111/padm.12775
Brown, Prudence R. and Stark, Alastair (2022). Policy inaction meets policy learning: four moments of non-implementation. Policy Sciences, 55 (1), 47-63. doi: 10.1007/s11077-021-09446-y
Stark, Alastair and Yates, Sophie (2021). Public inquiries as procedural policy tools. Policy and Society, 40 (3), 1-17. doi: 10.1080/14494035.2021.1955485
Stark, Alastair, Thomson, N. K. and Marston, Greg (2021). Public deliberation and policy design. Policy Design and Practice, 4 (4), 1-13. doi: 10.1080/25741292.2021.1912906
McConnell, Allan and Stark, Alastair (2021). Understanding policy responses to COVID-19: the stars haven’t fallen from the sky for scholars of public policy. Journal of European Public Policy, 28 (8), 1115-1130. doi: 10.1080/13501763.2021.1942518
Stark, Alastair (2019). Left on the shelf: Explaining the failure of public inquiry recommendations. Public Administration, 98 (3) padm.12630, 609-624. doi: 10.1111/padm.12630
Marston, Greg, Stark, Alastair, Matthews, Tony and Baker, Douglas (2019). Connecting social and environmental policy in Australia: collateral gains or collateral damage?. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 78 (1), 3-16. doi: 10.1111/1467-8500.12339
Stark, Alastair (2019). Policy learning and the public inquiry. Policy Sciences, 52 (3), 397-417. doi: 10.1007/s11077-019-09348-0
Stark, Alastair and Head, Brian (2019). Institutional amnesia and public policy. Journal of European Public Policy, 26 (10), 1-19. doi: 10.1080/13501763.2018.1535612
Stark, Alastair (2019). Explaining institutional amnesia in government. Governance, 32 (1), 143-158. doi: 10.1111/gove.12364
Stark, Alastair (2017). New institutionalism, critical junctures and post-crisis policy reform. Australian Journal of Political Science, 53 (1), 24-39. doi: 10.1080/10361146.2017.1409335
Davidson, Stewart, Elstub, Stephen, Johns, Robert and Stark, Alastair (2016). Rating the debates: The 2010 UK party leaders’ debates and political communication in the deliberative system. British Politics, 12 (2), 183-208. doi: 10.1057/s41293-016-0021-9
George, Nicole and Stark, Alastair (2015). Community resilience and crisis management: policy lessons from the ground. Policy and Politics, 44 (4), 591-607. doi: 10.1332/030557315X14351420409945
Stark, Alastair (2015). More micro than meta? Competing concepts of metagovernance in the European Union.. Public Policy and Administration, 30 (1), 73-91. doi: 10.1177/0952076714543862
Stark, Alastair (2014). Bureaucratic values and resilience: an exploration of crisis management adaptation. Public Administration, 92 (3), 692-706. doi: 10.1111/padm.12085
Stark, Alastair and Taylor, Monique (2014). Citizen participation, community resilience and crisis-management policy. Australian Journal of Political Science, 49 (2), 300-315. doi: 10.1080/10361146.2014.899966
Stark, Alastair (2011). The tradition of ministerial responsibility and its role in the bureaucratic management of crises. Public Administration, 89 (3), 1148-1163. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2011.01924.x
Davidson, Stewart, Alastair Stark, and Heggie, Gordon (2011). Best laid plans: The institutionalisation of public deliberation in Scotland. Political Quarterly, 82 (3), 379-388. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-923X.2011.02177.x
Davidson, Stewart and Stark, Alastair (2011). Institutionalising public deliberation: Insights from the Scottish Parliament. British Politics, 6 (2), 155-186. doi: 10.1057/bp.2011.3
Stark, Alastair (2011). Legislatures: Help or hindrance in achieving successful crisis management?. Policy and Society, 30 (2), 115-127. doi: 10.1016/j.polsoc.2011.03.006
Stark, Alastair (2010). A new perspective on constituency representation: British parliamentarians and the 'management' of crises. Journal of Legislative Studies, 16 (4), 495-514. doi: 10.1080/13572334.2010.519458
Stark, Alastair (2010). Legislatures, legitimacy and crises: The relationship between representation and crisis management. Journal of Crisis and Contingencies Management, 18 (1), 2-13. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-5973.2010.00598.x
McConnell, Allan and Stark, Alastair (2002). Bureaucratic Failure and the UK's lack of Preparedness for Foot and Mouth Disease. Public Policy and Administration, 17 (4), 39-54. doi: 10.1177/095207670201700404
McConnell, Allan and Stark, Alastair (2002). Foot-and-mouth 2001: The politics of crisis management. Parliamentary Affairs, 55 (4), 664-681. doi: 10.1093/parlij/55.4.664