Northern Illinois University
Department of Public Administration
School of Public and Global Affairs

Areas of Expertise

• Public budgeting
• Fiscal federalism
• Citizen engagement
• Local government collaboration
• Intersectoral collaboration
• Intergovernmental relations
• Public management networks
• Comparative public administration

Current Research Projects

I have several citizen-participation research projects underway. The first project involves using the Balancing Act simulation for local government budgets to study citizen preferences for cutback budgeting options. Selected experimental results from each experiment will be published in journals. The culmination of the project will be the first behavioral budgeting book for local governments, analyzing results across the experimental series.

Another project includes studies of county budgeting in Kenya. Underway since 2016, this research (with my doctoral student, Frankline Muthomi) has developed an Engaged Budgeting Model that strengthens democratic accountability and improves allocative efficiency in local government budgeting. We are intensely focusing on 4-6 counties in Kenya’s devolved local governments to assess which of the county participation models best delivers on the promises of devolved government. We believe there are many lessons from Kenya’s experience that can improve democratic accountability and allocative efficiency in devolved local governments in the US and elsewhere. Our first publication from this research appeared in 2021 in Public Administration Review. A second paper was published in the 50th Anniversary Issue of Public Administration and Development.

Selected Publications

Books

Dwight Ink and Kurt Thurmaier. Getting Things Done with Courage and Conviction: Successful Management Strategies Serving Seven U.S. Presidents. Melvin and Leigh Press, 2018.

Kurt Thurmaier, ed. Alternative Service Delivery: Readiness Check. ICMA Press (EBook), 2014.

Jack Meek and Kurt Thurmaier, eds. Networked Governance: The Future of Intergovernmental Management. CQ Press, 2011.

Suzanne Leland and Kurt Thurmaier, eds. Case Studies in City-County Consolidation: Promises Made, Promises Kept? Georgetown University Press, 2010.

Suzanne Leland and Kurt Thurmaier, eds. Reshaping the Local Government Landscape: Case Studies of Local Government Consolidation. M.E. Sharpe, 2004.

Kurt Thurmaier and Katherine Willoughby. Policy and Politics in State Budgeting. M.E. Sharpe, 2001.

Articles (2014–2024)

Frankline Muthomi and Kurt Thurmaier. “The Role of Social Media in Promoting Budget Transparency and Citizen Participation in Kenyan Counties.” Public Administration and Development (50th Anniversary Issue), 30 November 2024. https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.2081

Yilin Hou, Philip Joyce, Kurt Thurmaier & Katherine Willoughby. “Training future professors in public budgeting, finance, and financial management: The Inter-University Consortium for PhD courses,” Journal of Public Affairs Education 30:3 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1080/15236803.2023.2272654

Jaehee Jong, Tochukwu Madueke, and Kurt Thurmaier. “The capacity for Illinois townships to manage increased financial assistance caseloads during COVID.” Public Organization Review 23(2), 471–491 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-023-00707-3

Jaehee Jong, Christopher Goodman, Aaron Deslatte, Jerry Crabtree, and Kurt Thurmaier. “The forgotten governments: Exploring Midwestern township capacities and functional service responsibilities,” State and Local Government Review 55(2), 170–184 (2022).

Frankline Muthomi and Kurt Thurmaier. “Participatory Transparency in Kenya: Toward an Engaged Budgeting Model of Local Governance,” Public Administration Review 81(3), 519–531 (2021).

David Mitchell and Kurt Thurmaier. “(Re)Defining the Disarticulated Municipality: Budget Accountability for Networked Governance,” Public Budgeting and Finance 36(1), 47–67 (2016).

Suzanne Leland and Kurt Thurmaier. “Political and Functional Local Government Consolidation: The Challenges for Core Public Administration Values and Regional Reform,” American Review of Public Administration 44(4), 29S–46S (2014).

Book Chapters

Kurt Thurmaier. “Improving MPA Competencies using ‘With the People,’” in Teaching Democratic Ideals to Public Affairs Students: Findings and Reflections from Diverse Course Designs, ed. by Thomas A. Bryer and Timothy J. Shaffer. London: Routledge, 2023.

Evan Walter and Kurt Thurmaier. “Who Will Risk Interlocal Collaboration?” in Handbook of Collaborative Public Management, edited by Jack Meek. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021.

Frankline Muthomi and Kurt Thurmaier. “Performance Budgeting in Kenya: Challenges of Institutional Change & Communication Processes,” in Performance Budgeting Reform: Theory and International Practice, edited by Alfred T. Ho, Maarten de Jong, and Zaozao Zhao. New York: Routledge, 2019.

Kurt Thurmaier. “Comments on ‘Reaching and maintaining structural balance: leaders in the states’ and ‘Fiscal limitations on local choice: the imposition and effects of local government tax and expenditure limitations,’” in State and Local Fiscal Policy: Thinking Outside the Box?, edited by Sally Wallace. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 2010.

Hellmut Wollmann and Kurt Thurmaier. “Local Government Institutions and the New Public Management,” in Oxford Handbook of Urban Politics, edited by Karen Mossberger, Susan E. Clarke, and Peter John, 2012.

Refereed Teaching Cases

Erica Ceka, Frankline Muthomi, and Kurt Thurmaier. “River City Cuts Back: A Balancing Act Simulation.” Journal of Public Affairs Education, 1–15 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1080/15236803.2024.2366166

Kurt Thurmaier and William Hannah. “Fox Falls Capital Budgeting,” in Robert Blair and Kimberly Nelson (eds.), Managing Local Government: Cases in Effectiveness, 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: ICMA, 2024.

Other Publications

Kurt Thurmaier. “The Arc of the Moral Universe Bends when Ethical Public Managers Act,” PM Magazine, September 1, 2021.

Frankline Muthomi and Kurt Thurmaier. “Performance Budgeting in Kenya: Challenges of Institutional Change & Communication Processes,” in Ho, Alfred T., Maarten de Jong, and Zaozao Zhao, eds. Performance Budgeting Reform: Theory and International Practice. New York: Routledge, 2019.

Kurt Thurmaier and Erica Ceka. “Nattering Nabobs of Negativism Are No Match for Participatory Budgeting” PM Magazine, July 2018: 3–17.

Erica Ceka and Kurt Thurmaier. “Interlocal Relations” in Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia. Center for the Study of Federalism, 2018 (invited entry).

David Mitchell and Kurt Thurmaier. “Currents and Undercurrents in Budgeting Theory: Exploring the Swirls, Heading Upstream,” in Jos C.N. Raadschelders and Richard J. Stillman, Jr., eds. Foundations of Public Administration. Irvine, CA: Melvin & Leigh Publishers, 2016.

Funded Research and Projects (Recent)

The Moral Foundations of Public Budgeting (2024)
PI: Kurt Thurmaier; co-investigators: Frankline Muthomi, Shayne Kavanaugh, and Casey LaFrance. Funded by the Government Finance Officers Association and Oregon State University, $5,000.

Fulbright-Hays Group Project: Changing Perspectives (2021–2022)
PI: Kurt Thurmaier; co-PIs: Teresa Wasonga and James Cohen. US Department of Education, $76,166. Field study in Tanzania and Kenya, July 3–August 9, 2022, with 13 students from NIU’s College of Education.

Public Financial Publications (2019)
Principal Investigator: Kurt Thurmaier. Funds specific enhancements to a new public budgeting simulation for research and teaching in public budgeting and financial management courses. User Consortium of 16 budgeting and finance scholars from the US, UK, and Canada contributed to enhancements of the Balancing Act simulation program. Total Funding: $9,500.