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Assessing 30 years of Westminster policy advisory system experience

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Abstract

With the 30th anniversary of the policy advisory systems concept on the horizon, it is an appropriate time to reflect further on the concept’s utility, particularly in helping to understand the dynamics of system change and their implications for policy-making. This article provides diachronic analysis of the policy advisory systems in the classic Anglo-Saxon ‘Westminster’ family (Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand). Analysis focuses on five advisory units: the public service and central agencies, partisan ministerial advisers, external consultants, commissions of inquiry, and select special advisory bodies. The principle research aim is to compare these cases to shed light on advisory system dynamics through identification and analysis of shared and country-specific patterns of PAS change. We argue that the leading dynamics of politicization and externalization often used to characterize how advisory systems change masks idiosyncratic country patterns. We argue that differences in the tempo, intensity, and sequencing of advisory unit (de)institutionalization are clear in these cases and that attention to these dimensions of advisory system change add precision to understanding the organization, operation, and evolution of these systems.

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Notes

  1. The list of relevant units also includes parliamentary committees, private think tanks, and supranational agencies.

  2. In this paper, politicization entails the redistribution of policy responsibility and authority within the executive branch. It is associated with attempts by governments to increase political control and public service responsiveness in the policy process through greater use of appointments, and through ‘steering’ activities designed to manage policy-making towards desired outcomes (Dahlström et al. 2011; Peters and Pierre 2004).

  3. Policy analytical capacity describes the ability of individuals in a policy-relevant organization to produce valuable policy-relevant research and analysis on topics asked of them or of their own choosing (Howlett et al. 2016).

  4. It is unclear whether this total includes ‘public inquiries’ discussed subsequently.

  5. The Commission had predecessors, but they were constituted on a different basis and with narrower foci and standing.

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  1. Department of Political Science, School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Jonathan Craft

  2. Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia

    John Halligan

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Craft, J., Halligan, J. Assessing 30 years of Westminster policy advisory system experience. Policy Sci 50, 47–62 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-016-9256-y

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