Policy Consultancy in Comparative Perspective

Berg, Caspar Floris van den; Howlett, Michael; Migone, Andrea; Howard, Michael; Pemer, Frida; Gunter, Helen

doi:10.1017/9781108634724

Cited by 21 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 228 publications

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“…Studies have repeatedly found a pronounced role for consultancies and think tanks as both key sources of policy ideas and advice, and as technical experts that government must go to given policy capacity shortages after years of budget cuts and austerity measures (Keele 2019; Marsh and Stone, 2004; Saint-Martin 2004; van den Berg et al. 2019; Weiss 2018). In Australia, for example, van den Berg et al.…”

Section: Learning From Westminster Style Governments: Pas Management ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Australia, for example, van den Berg et al. (2019) identify a continuous rise in the scope use of consultants for policy-related issues by the federal government, as well as a change in their substantial role, concurrent with stagnant levels of in-house staffing (see also: Marciano 2022), similar to the rise of the role and influence of consultants in Britain as well (Weiss 2018).…”

Section: Learning From Westminster Style Governments: Pas Management ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Likewise, the institutionalised reliance on private consultants for essential policy advisory activity in Australia reflects a broader PAS management application (van den Berg et al. 2019). In contrast, PAS management in these countries clearly includes governments adopting a more focused scope of PAS management (see Table 3).…”

Section: Nature and Scope Of Pas Management Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Theorising policy advisory system management: approaches and practice

Marciano

Craft

2023

J. Pub. Pol.

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This article develops the concept of policy advisory system (PAS) management in recognition of the need to better theorise and empirically study how governments approach the complex systems of advice around them. In our analysis, we go beyond the conceptualisation of degrees of government’s “control” over advisory sources. We use the dimensions of government agency and discretion and argue that PAS management falls into four forms: authoritative, dependent, laissez-faire, or absent. Using evidence from Australia, Canada, Britain, and New Zealand, we explore how governments operationalise these approaches through a range of choices and practices. The analysis points to the need to recognise that attempts to manage these systems occur both proactively and reactively with clear differences in the broad or narrow scope of management efforts.

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Section: Learning From Westminster Style Governments: Pas Management ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Learning From Westminster Style Governments: Pas Management ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Nature and Scope Of Pas Management Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Theorising policy advisory system management: approaches and practice

Marciano

Craft

2023

J. Pub. Pol.

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“…In various jurisdictions, consultants are taking an increasingly growing part in public policy formulation: they are involved in a range of policy issues, from education and healthcare to climate adaptation and urban development policies (Saint‐Martin, 2017; Steiner et al, 2018; van den Berg et al, 2019). As unelected and unappointed private market actors, unaccountable to the public, their role in policy formulation is a source both of interest and concern.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the UK, for example, public sector spending on consultants doubled in 2021–2022 alone to GBP 2.5 billion, following the COVID‐19 pandemic and Brexit (O'Dwyer, 2021). In Australia, the use of consultants by the federal government has risen steadily over the last three decades, with public commissions and reports expressing concerns over the shift in consultants' role toward a preferred source of policy advice (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2019, p. 185; van den Berg et al, 2019). And in the US, the public sector spending on consulting services has grown to reach USD 6 billion in 2016 (Consulting.us, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More than just experts for hire: A conceptualization of the roles of consultants in public policy formulation

Marciano

2023

Policy Studies Journal

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Consultants are increasingly a part of public policy formulation, and their policy involvement draws extensive interest in research and public debate. However, there is a gap in how we think about their formulation role: they are often conceptualized as a type of expert, while their actual interaction with and contribution to policy formulation is much more varied. This paper develops a conceptualization of consultants' formulation roles. It demonstrates that rather than just informing policy formulation, consultants take multiple roles and interact with policymaking and makers in multiple ways. Using a policy network/subsystem distinction and a substance/process distinction as the main axes for analysis, the paper develops four role categories: (1) experts and knowledge brokers, in which consultants provide policy advice and analysis; (2) seeing for the government, in which they construct a picture of the policy field; (3) legitimizers and validators, in which they provide symbolic capital to policy; and (4) channels for stakeholders' policy preferences, in which they manage deliberation and synthesize actors' policy preferences. The paper provides much‐needed clarity on how consultants engage with policy formulation and policymakers and forwards our understanding of how consultants exert their policy influence.

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Super‐users and hyper‐experts in the provision of policy advice: Evidence from a survey of Canadian academics

Migone

McGregor

Brock

et al. 2022

European Policy Analysis

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The relationships of influence and activity between academics and other actors (public, private, and nongovernmental) in the policy process are complex.Although older work often argued academic research at best had an indirect "environmental" or "enlightenment" effect on policy-makers, (May et al. (2016). Policy, 36, 195) recently argued that in the US case previous studies misconstrued the role of academic policy advice because they surveyed "average" academics and in so doing missed the significant impact of a small elite group of "hyper-experts" within an already small group of "super-users" interacting on a constant basis with government policy-makers. This article draws upon data from a survey of academics in four fields (Business, Engineering, Health and Politics) in six major Canadian Universities to map out the relationships existing between academics and other actors in the public, private, and non-governmental sectors and test for the existence of this elite pattern of interaction in a second country. Journal of Public

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Policy Consultancy in Comparative Perspective

Cited by 21 publications

References 228 publications

Theorising policy advisory system management: approaches and practice

Theorising policy advisory system management: approaches and practice

More than just experts for hire: A conceptualization of the roles of consultants in public policy formulation

Super‐users and hyper‐experts in the provision of policy advice: Evidence from a survey of Canadian academics

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