The hearts and brains of policy advisory systems: ministerial advisers, ministerial offices and executive triangles

This chapter advances a ministerial adviser approach in understanding policy advisory systems. It argues that ministerial advisers, the office in which they work and the configuration of their relationships with politicians and civil servants—the executive triangle—are crucial components of policy advisory systems in modern liberal democracies. As proximate-internal components to government they are the hearts and brains of the policy advisory system, shaping it via three mechanisms: policy capacity; (de)politicization; and openness. The chapter conceptually develops the links between these core system components and the policy advisory system and offers an empirical illustration across certain national jurisdictions drawing on data from the author's original research.