Sabina Schnell

Sabina Schnell is assistant professor of public administration and international affairs and faculty research associate at the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC). She holds a Ph.D. in public administration from the George Washington University, an M.A. in development policy from the University of Bremen, Germany, and a B.A. in international business from the Academy of Economic Sciences, Bucharest, Romania.

At Maxwell she has taught courses on International Development, Good Governance, International Management, and Research Design for IR Practitioners. Her research focuses on transparency, open-government, anti-corruption and good governance in developing countries. She has published articles in Governance, the American Review of Public Administration, Public Administration and Development and the International Review of Administrative Sciences.

Schnell also has extensive experience as a development practitioner, having worked on policy advisory and public sector reform projects with international organizations such as the German Agency for International Cooperation and the World Bank. 

Peer-reviewed articles

Schnell, S., & Gerard, C. (2022). From Bureaucrats to Entrepreneurs to Networkers, Advocates, and Empaths: Reappraising Human Resources Management Ideals and Practices in Public Administration. Review of Public Personnel Administration.

Schnell, S. (2022). Transparency in a “Post-Fact” World. Perspectives on Public Management and Governance. 

Schnell, S. (2020). Vision, voice, and technology: Is there a global “open government” trend? Administration & Society, 52(10), 1593-1620.

Beagles, J., Schnell, S. & Gerard, C. (2019). Overcoming isolationism in American public administration. Perspectives on Public Management and Governance (PPMG), 2(4), 255-266.

Schnell, S., & Jo, S. (2019). Which countries have more open governments? Assessing structural determinants of openness. The American Review of Public Administration, 49(8), 944-956.

Schnell, S. (2018). Cheap talk or incredible commitment? (Mis)calculating transparency and anti‐corruption. Governance, 31(3), 415-430.

Schnell, S. (2018). From information to predictability: transparency on the path to democratic governance. The case of Romania. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 84(4), 692-710.  

Schnell, S. (2015) Mimicry, persuasion, or learning? The case of two transparency and anti-corruption policies in Romania. Public Administration and Development. 35(4), 277-287.

Schnell, S. & Saxby, J. (2010). Mobilizing against hunger and poverty: Capacity and change in a Brazilian social mobilization network. Public Administration and Development. 30(1), 38-48. 

Book chapters

Schnell, S. (2020). Transparency assessment in national systems. Ch. 4 in: Paanakker, H., Masters, A.B. & Huberts, L. (Eds.) Quality of Governance: Values and Violations. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan, pp.81-101.

Schnell, S. & Brinkerhoff, D. (2010). Replicability and Scaling Up. In: Helmut Anheier & Stefan Toepler (Eds.) (2010). International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. New York: Springer

Other publications

Schnell, S., Mihes, D., Sobjak, A., & van Acker, W. (2021). "Performance Management in the Public Administration: Seven Success Factors." Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Insight. World Bank, Washington, DC.