Policy Consultancy in Comparative Perspective
Patterns, Nuances and Implications of the Contractor State

Sheds new light on the use of external public policy consultants from an interdisciplinary and international comparative approach.

Caspar van den Berg (Author), Michael Howlett (Author), Andrea Migone (Author), Michael Howard (Author), Frida Pemer (Author), Helen M. Gunter (Author)

9781009376242, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 April 2023

333 pages, 21 b/w illus. 61 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.484 kg

'This is an important book, rich in its theoretical, empirical and comparative approach. By focusing on the role that consultants have come to play in the policy arena, it fills a gap in the public policy literature and clearly introduces something new that students of public administration need to be concerned with. The impact of these consultants has largely been ignored and this important work puts them where they belong: that is, in the mix of the forces that shape public policies. The work explores the multifarious tasks they perform in the policy-making arena: from analyzing … advising … recommending, and even to communicating and publicizing policies.' Ezra Suleiman, IBM Professor of International Studies, Princeton University, New Jersey

Many Western countries have seen an increase in the volume and importance of external consultants in the public policy process. This book is the first to investigate this phenomenon in a comparative and interdisciplinary way. The analysis shows who these consultants are, how widely and for what reasons they are used in Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, The Netherlands and Sweden. In doing so, the book addresses the positive and negative implications of high levels of external policy consultancy, including its implications for the nature of the state (transforming into a contractor state?) and for democratically legitimized and accountable decision-making (transforming into consultocracy?). It provides valuable new insights for students and practitioners in the fields of public administration, public policy, public management, political science and human resource management.

List of figures
List of tables
Author biographies
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
1. Policy consultancy in comparative perspective
2. Consultancy in the UK Government: modernising privatism
3. Policy consulting in the USA: significant but in decline? 4. Entrenched and escalating: policy-relevant consulting and contracting in Australia, 1987–2017
5. From corporatist to contractor state? Policy consulting in The Netherlands
6. Policy consultants for substance and process: a review of the supply and demand for Canadian policy consulting
7. Swedish government agencies' hiring of policy consultants: a phenomenon of increased magnitude and importance? 8. Conclusion: policy consulting in comparative perspective
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
Appendix F
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Central government policies [JPQB], Public administration [JPP], Comparative politics [JPB]