The Role and Types Expert Bodies in Policy Advisory Systems

A common topic in public policy and administration research is the significance of knowledge in policy-making. There is a vast and diverse body of literature on evidence-based policy-making, which includes (among others) works by Capano and Malandrino (2022), Christensen (2021), Head (2008, 2010), Howlett (2019), Laage-Thomsen (2021), and Plowden (1987). Similarly, a number of studies have analysed policy advisory systems and think tanks, committees, and similar expert bodies that are often set up by governments to make suggestions on how to address policy problems. Despite the consolidation of this literature, there is still a fragmented body of research on the characteristics of the expert bodies that the government tends to appoint on a recurring basis. This fragmented literature can be divided into three streams of research. The first stream of research, which arose within organization theory and public policy analysis, focuses on ad hoc expert bodies. A second stream of research focuses on what are called scientific advisory committees. A third stream of research, typical of political science, focuses primarily on the political-bureaucratic reasons for expert appointments. All these streams aim to understand the composition and functioning of expert bodies, but there seems to be no accumulation process and, therefore, no shared conceptualization of why and how these bodies are appointed.