INTRODUCTION. Policy Advisory Systems: Research Agendas and Comparative Approaches

Many challenges are associated with developing, delivering, and using policy advice. This is equally true for researching it. These challenges have intensified as modern governance and has become more complex and as new advisory supplies and practices join an already dizzying array of considerations. Recognizing this, policy scholars have turned to studying policy advice in more systematic terms. That is, as policy advisory systems (PAS), or the assemblage of formal and informal advisory units and practices, inside and outside of government, that exist at a given time and with which governments and other actors engage for policymaking purposes (Craft and Halligan 2020). This has facilitated moving from a traditional focus on discreet sets of advisers, especially civil services, to a more synergistic focus that recognizes the pluralism and interactive character of advisory activity