Prof. Moshe Maor

Moshe Maor is a Professor of Political Science, the Head of the MA Track in Public Policy and Political Marketing at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, Reichman University, and the past incumbent of the Wolfson Family Chair in Public Administration at the Department of Political Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Maor served as a member of Israel’s Council for Higher Education and in a range of academic roles at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was also a member of the public council and executive board of The Menachem Begin Heritage Center. Maor is the founder of the research field of disproportionate policy. In theorizing this field, he introduced into the scholarly lexicon twelve new concepts that enable public policy scholars all over the world to "see” processes that until now had not received academic attention (such as policy bubbles and interactions between policy bubbles). Maor also introduced the study of emotions into the field of public policy, mainly by discussing emotional entrepreneurs who utilize emotion regulation strategies to advance their policy aims. In this way, Maor consolidated the Disproportionate Policy Perspective, at the center of which lies the deliberate disproportionate policy response, which constitutes an alternative to unintentional errors of commission or omission, or nonintentional responses that political executives never intended to implement yet are not executed unknowingly, inadvertently or accidentally. Maor has also offered a theoretical and empirical contribution to the field of bureaucratic reputation. His studies concern reputation-building by government agencies; reputation management vis-à-vis reputational threats; communication strategies by reputation-sensitive agencies; and reputational spillover and decay. They focus on regulatory bodies in the USA (mainly the Food and Drug Administration), Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Israel (mainly the Bank of Israel), and more. Maor’s contribution to the New Institutionalism approach in political science centers on introducing the concept of the “Mythical Institution” and examining it in the context of non-linear changes in politics and policy. His writings in the fields of public administration and management have, among other matters, identified the “Paradox of Managerialism” in countries that implement New Public Management reforms. In addition, Maor has published extensively on issues related to West European politics; the fight against corruption; recruitment and training of senior public officials; Israel’s policies during the Covid-19 pandemic; representative bureaucracy in Israel; and more. Maor is currently an Executive Committee member of the International Public Policy Association (IPPA).

Research and Teaching Expertise