Policy Advisory Systems: Understanding Political ‘Demand’

In the policy advice literature, there has been two main ‘waves’ of research focus. In the first wave, the focus of scholarly attention tended to focus on single policy advice actors. A key innovation was offered by Halligan, who sought to frame policy advice within a policy advisory system, with a focus on government control and location. In later research, Craft and Wilder called for a ‘second wave’ of research which also sought to integrate factors such as policy content and context, but also reflect the increasingly polycentric advice landscape. This paper supports the call for a third wave, by focussing more clearly on policy advice system and institutional dynamics, but, crucially, expand and prioritise issues of ‘demand’. A core argument offered in this this is that the dynamics of ‘demand’ (or what Halligan calls government control) need to be interrogated more fully, and be given greater prominence in current understandings of PAS dynamics. The net effect of marginalising ‘demand’ factors is that can de-politicise the extent and nature of advice-giving, and reduce it a seeming technocratic exchange. To expand our understanding of demand, this paper offers a new and revised framework for understanding the dynamics of demand within policy advice systems.