Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Public Administration, academic research, advice, Belgium, Germany, knowledge utilisation, policy-advisory system, ADVISORY SYSTEMS, UNIVERSITY-RESEARCH, THINK TANKS, POLITICIZATION, DYNAMICS, EXTERNALIZATION, GOVERNMENT, DEMAND, 1503 Business and Management, 1605 Policy and Administration, Political Science & Public Administration, 3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviour, 4407 Policy and administration

Abstract:

Research on policy-advisory systems worldwide has shown that historically dominant sources of advice traditionally located in-house to the government have been increasingly supplemented by other actors and outside knowledge. However, the vast majority of research has concentrated on the anglophone context. Yet, countries with a consensus-seeking, neo-corporatist tradition provide a special case in terms of policy advice and merit more scholarly attention. What counts as evidence in these countries is the expert rationality of institutional representatives. The position and role of academic research in consensus-based systems is unclear, and is the focus of this article. Can we observe commonalities across consensus-style countries, or do differences prevail? We investigate two typical consensus-seeking countries: Belgium and Germany. To examine the supply side of policy advice, the article reviews current evidence regarding their policy-advisory systems. For the demand side, we present insights from a survey among federal ministerial officials. We find common trends between the two cases but their nature and extent are idiosyncratic. In Belgium, the supply of and demand for academic policy advice is comparatively lower, while the German case exhibits more change in the advisory landscape and institutionalisation of the supply of and demand for academic research.