The triangle of bureaucratic policy analysis and the professional types of high-level civil servants: Empirical evidence from Southern Europe

Despite the growing interest in the policy work and analyticalcapacities of bureaucracies, these dimensions have not beentreated as central to characterizing and understanding the roleof senior civil servants in policymaking, which is usually con-ceptualized in terms of their relationship with policymakers orother organizational and societal factors. This article fills thisgap by proposing an analytical framework that allows the em-pirical classification of high-level civil servants according tothe “triangle of bureaucratic policy analysis”, which consists ofpossible links between their policy work, their policy analyticalcapacities, and the types of information they use. We apply thisanalytical lens to the results of a large survey of approximately1000 senior civil servants in Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.Our findings consist of three empirical professional types oftop bureaucrats, the “political generalist”, the “manager”, andthe “legal advisor”, each characterized by a particular combina-tion of specific policy analytical capacities, sources and types ofinformation used, and policy work. The proposed frameworkthus offers a promising conceptual lens for comparative re-search and demonstrates how a focus on the policy dimensionsof high-level officials' activities can provide a novel perspectiveon their roles.