This working paper revisits a classical question in Public Administration: where does public administration reside? While territorial categories such as local, regional, national and supranational levels remain relevant, contemporary governance requires a broader understanding of the locus of administrative capacity. Building on the literature on administrative and state capacity, multilevel governance, network governance, post-NPM reform, metagovernance and Digital-Era Governance, the paper introduces the concept of Distributed Administrative Capacity (DAC). DAC is defined as the configuration of administrative capabilities located across governmental, organisational, relational and digital-infrastructural loci, together with the institutional capacity to connect, supervise and govern those capabilities as coherent public action. The concept distinguishes between two analytical dimensions. The first concerns the distribution of capacity across different institutional sites, including public authorities, administrative organisations, interorganisational networks and digital infrastructures such as data systems, cloud services, platforms, algorithms and AI. The second concerns integrative capacity: the ability of public institutions to coordinate, supervise, correct and, when necessary, replace the distributed capabilities on which public action depends. The paper argues that digital transformation increasingly separates formal authority, operational capacity, technological infrastructure and accountability. As a result, administrative capacity cannot be assessed solely through the resources and expertise located within individual public organisations. It must also be evaluated through the capacity of public institutions to govern the wider configurations through which public services are delivered. DAC therefore provides a diagnostic framework for examining where authority and capabilities reside, how they are connected, who controls the underlying infrastructures, and who retains the effective capacity to intervene when systems fail. The broader implication is that distributed capacity need not imply fragmented capacity, provided that public institutions retain sufficient integrative, supervisory and corrective capabilities to preserve both state capacity and democratic accountability.

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Distributed Administrative Capacity,State Capacity,Administrative Capacity,Digital Governance,Digital-Era Governance,Accountability,Metagovernance,Public Administration.

• Political Science - Social Sciences