Jonathan Boston

Jonathan has published widely on a range of matters including public management, social policy, climate change policy, tertiary education policy, and comparative government.

While at Victoria University of Wellington, Jonathan has served as Director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies and Director of the Institute of Policy Studies. Earlier in his career he worked briefly for the New Zealand Treasury and taught at the University of Canterbury. During 2000-01 he was a member of the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission, and later helped to design, implement and evaluate the Performance-Based Research Fund. More recently he served as Co-Chair of the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty, established by the Children’s Commissioner. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 2014 to undertake research on ‘Governing for the Future: Bringing Long-Term Policy Issues into Short-Term Political Focus’.

Jonathan serves on the boards of a number of organizations including Oxfam NZ

Jonathan’s recent research has focused on the challenge of governing for the long-term in the face of strong presentist tendencies in democratic policy-making. Current projects include designing institutions to manage the challenge of climate change adaptation, reforms to the welfare state, and reforming parliament.