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Policy Advice

Policy advice does not exist in a vacuum. If it did, it would be irrelevant to political affairs, of only abstract interest. Instead, policy advice can only be understood in relational terms. It is offered by some to others. Therefore, a number of central—and closely interrelated—questions can be asked:

  • What is public policy advice?
  • To whom is such advice provided and why?
  • Who offers policy advice?
  • Why is policy advice needed?
  • How is policy advice provided?
  • What constitutes “good” policy advice?

What is Public Policy Advice?

Policy advice is a generic term referring to a wide range of activities within the processes of governmental policy making. These include research, both formal and informal; the writing and presentation of policy memoranda laying out policy choices and options; discussions and negotiations on public policy issues; and the monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of policies.

Policy advice may usefully be distinguished from political advice, though there is no clear and unambiguous distinction but rather shades of gray. Whereas policy advice relates to the content of public policy, and may often address complex technical issues, political advice comprises counsel that addresses considerations of political costs and benefits that may be borne by those policymakers who hold elected office in liberal democratic societies. All high-level policy advisers are usually required to be sensitive to the political context of the advice they provide.

For heuristic purposes, the so-called public policy process is often depicted as a policy cycle moving sequentially from problem definition, to policy formulation, to policy implementation, to policy evaluation, and then perhaps back to problem redefinition and policy reformulation, and so on. In reality, the process is usually not that tidy, and various stages of the cycle can occur simultaneously rather than sequentially. As the American political scientist Carl Friedrich (1940) famously put it, “Public policy is being formed as it is being executed, and it is likewise being executed as it is being formed” (p. 6). Nevertheless, policy advice can be directed at one or all of these stages of public policy making, and advisers may be specialists in particular areas, most notably perhaps in policy formulation, in policy implementation, or in policy evaluation.

To whom is Policy Advice Provided?

The principal answer is that policy advice is provided to those whose formal responsibility it is to make public policy. Generally speaking, in parliamentary systems, this is the main function of the political executive, headed by a prime minister whose government must enjoy the confidence of the legislature, from which it is drawn; and in republican constitutional systems, in which the executive and legislative arms of government are formally separate, it is the president and his or her top executives. It also includes members of the legislature in both types of system, whose role is to scrutinize and debate public policy and to pass the laws that enact it.

Again, as indicated by Friedrich's observation, some policy advisers may simultaneously be the recipients of advice, especially those who hold senior bureaucratic offices. They themselves will often be receiving policy advice from their organizational subordinates.

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