LIST OF PANELS

There is a growing international literature on political advisers, their agency and influence, their relationships and their systemic significance, documented in a number of comparative books (Eichbaum and Shaw 2010, Shaw and Eichbaum 2018) and most recently a Handbook on Ministerial and Political Advisers (2023, ed Richard Shaw). This panel aims to capture the variety and range of new research occurring on these topics across many different political contexts and geographic spaces. There is a need to develop the field in terms of greater description, more comparative analysis, methodological sophistication, and theoretical elaboration. The panel seeks to bring together researchers working on the many different parts of this project to help understand, advance and integrate new scholarly developments.

This panel welcomes papers on any aspect of the confluence between politics and administration in contemporary democratic systems, including the activities and career trajectories of political advisers, and their relationships with ministers and civil servants. It seeks paper proposals that provide new empirical findings, especially from non-Western and non-European public administration settings, as well as those addressing other empirical gaps, such the work and significance of political staff in devolved governments. It welcomes papers using theoretical frameworks such as public service bargains, policy advisory systems, the core executive, and the gendered nature of political institutions. It encourages papers addressing puzzles such as: the norms and values surrounding the work of political staff; the agency, influence and possibly disruptive impact of political staff; their significance within the evolution of political parties; the relationships and ties between political staff and lobby groups; and the challenges of viewing their locations as workplaces. It also welcomes comparative analyses that build on and extend country case-studies and papers that explore critical concepts such as politicisation and the role of political staff in managing dilemmas of modern governance. The panel particularly welcomes papers on countries that are underrepresented in the literature, which has a Westminster and continental European bias. The panel welcomes both online and onsite participants and paper givers. The panel will be in a hybrid format.