LIST OF WORKSHOPS

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Executive politicians, senior civil servants and political advisors are the policy protagonists at the top of executive government. Despite their central policy making role, there is a striking lack of systematic and comparative research about their profiles, the organizational settings in which their work takes place, the actual policy work they do, and finally the implications of the way they are linked in the organization of executive government. A crucial lacuna here is that past research has largely ignored the way these actors work together to produce policy outcomes. In view of this, the workshop welcomes papers:
1.      that address the institutionalization and organization at the top of executive organizations across a range of cases and relying on various methods. Understanding various forms and degrees of institutionalization of the third element (political advisors) vis-à-vis the other actors at the executive top is a particular point of interest to the workshop.
2.     on socio-demographic profiles and careers of politicians, bureaucrats and ministerial advisors (prosopographic research). How are advisors and public servants appointed? What is their career path? To whom are they loyal? Is there a revolving door phenomenon in their ranks, and how detrimental is it for public service professionalism?
3.     on the distinct roles of politicians, bureaucrats, and political advisors in the executive and on how they interact in the policymaking process. Conceptual and empirical papers on the way policy relevant evidence, media anticipation, political consequences are considered and mediated by different actors are particularly welcome.
4.     on controversial behavior by bureaucrats, advisors and executive politicians in their mutual interactions, and on the way this behavior is regulated by codes of conduct and accountability rules. The workshop welcomes papers that analyze controversies and rules across a range of contexts and from various methodological perspectives.

Executive politicians, senior civil servants and political advisors are the policy protagonists at the top of executive government. Despite their central policy making role, there is a striking lack of systematic and comparative research about their profiles, the organizational settings in which their work takes place, the actual policy work they do and finally the implications of the way they are linked in the organization of executive government. Existing research focusses on single cases, uses a multitude of theories, concepts and methods, all of which stymies significant progress in comparative research. In particular, the interlinkages and relations between the three actors at the top are under-studied and systematic knowledge on their interdependencies is needed to get a more concise understanding of sources of variations of executive organization and the implications thereof for policy-making, accountability and legitimacy of governance arrangements. The workshop welcomes papers that study the interlinkages of the different actors at the top, or that methodologically or theoretically consolidate research on the nature and role of particular actors vis-à-vis other actors, or that explore recent trends and developments, their causes and consequences.

Marleen Brans is Professor at the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute and visiting professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain. Her research interests are the production and use of evidence and advice in policy advisory systems, with a special focus on two groups of advisory actors: ministerial advisors and social scientists. Since 2017 she has been co-directing a project on policy advice utilization by ministerial cabinet advisors in Napoleonic administrative systems, funded by the Science Foundation in the French speaking community in Belgium. In 2018, she was funded by the Flemish Science Foundation to include the institutionalization of ministerial advisors in Westminster systems. With a KU Leuven grant, she directs a study on the alleged de-cabinetisation of ministerial offices in in Napoleonic systems, i.e. Belgium, France and the European Commission. Together these three research projects will help to strengthen academic exchange across traditionally different administrative systems and research traditions. Her recent publications include several co-edited books (Policy analysis in Belgium, with D. Aubin, Policy Press 2017; Routledge Handbook of Comparative Policy Analysis, with M. Howlett and I. Geva-May, 2017), and articles in journals such as Public Administration, Governance, West-European Politics, European Journal for Political Research, Policy and Society.
 
Athanassios Gouglas is a lecturer in politics and public policy in the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter, where he also directs the MSc Global Governance. He is also an external research fellow at the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute. His research focuses on legislative turnover and political elite circulation, political advisers and policy making, policy advice utilization and policy advisory systems. He is currently authoring a book on political advisers around the world, which will be published by Edward Elgar. He has previously published articles on journals such as the European Journal of Political Research, Public Administration and Politics. 
Thurid Hustedt is Professor of Public Administration and Management at the Hertie School. Thurid is co-editor of the leading German-speaking journal in public administration and public policy, dms – der moderne staat. Previously, she was a visiting professor at the Freie Universität Berlin and a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Potsdam. She was a visiting researcher at the University of Bergen and the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on public sector change dynamics, political-administrative relations and comparative public administration and she explores the role of policy advisory systems in governance and policymaking. In particular, she is interested in understanding variation in the institutionalisation and roles of advisors and civil servants in a comparative perspective. She has widely published in international journals among others in Public Administration and Journal of European Public Policy.