Policy advisory systems & policy advice utilisation: a bird’s eye view on the literature

In the present internal report we review the literature on policy advice. In particular we focus on what we know and what we don’t know on policy advisory systems and policy advice utilisation. We do this by employing a traditional narrative review method. In order to add some rigour in the review process we organise the material around key themes and questions that emerge as important in the literature. This is done in three sections. First, we begin with a discussion on the very definition of policy advice. Does policy advice, presently defined as a background concept, adequately delimit our field of enquiry or should we better construct a systematised one? In the second section we proceed with an examination of what the literature says on policy advisory systems. What are policy advisory systems and how may the policy advice process be conceptualised within them? More importantly what do past studies reveal on policy advisory system configuration and why are they structured the way they do? How do such systems change in time and towards what direction? What can be said on the determinants of actors and their influence? Finally, the third section deals with policy advice utilisation. We present literature insights on three crucial issues: a) how may we conceive use of policy advice, b) who are the users of advice and why do they seek advice, c) what determines use of advice?