Policy Consultancy in Comparative Perspective: Patterns, Nuances and Implications of the Contractor State

Many Western countries have seen an increase in the volume and importance of external consultants in the public policy process. This book is the first to investigate this phenomenon in a comparative and interdisciplinary way. The analysis shows who these consultants are, how widely and for what reasons they are used in Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, The Netherlands and Sweden. In doing so, the book addresses the positive and negative implications of high levels of external policy consultancy, including its implications for the nature of the state (transforming into a contractor state?) and for democratically legitimized and accountable decision-making (transforming into consultocracy?). It provides valuable new insights for students and practitioners in the fields of public administration, public policy, public management, political science and human resource management.

Caspar van den Berg is Professor of Governance at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands. His work has appeared in journals including Governance, Public Administration and JPART. He received the prestigious Van Poelje Prize for best dissertation in the administrative and policy sciences in The Netherlands and Flanders. He was a visiting fellow at Princeton University (2013–2014) and received a prominent four-year Veni scholarship from the Dutch Science Organization (2015).

Michael Howlett is Burnaby Mountain Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Political Science at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. He specializes in public policy studies with an emphasis on natural resource and environmental policy-making. He is currently editor of Policy Sciences, Policy Design and Practice, the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Policy & Society and the Annual Review of Policy Design.

Andrea Migone is Director of Research and Outreach at the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. He specializes in public policy and public administration. His academic career includes work on decision-making, globalization, innovation policy, procurement and governance. He was a post-doctoral research fellow at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia

Michael Howard is a Conjoint Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales. His career has spanned teaching and research in public policy in both academic and advocacy settings, along with policy development and service delivery within innovative government programs. His publications have centered on historical aspects of policy-making and contemporary commercialization trends in the public sector, with a focus on consultants.

Frida Pemer is Assistant Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics. Her research centers on how organizations use professional services, and on digitalization in professional service firms. She has published her work in highly-ranked journals like JPART, Governance, Human Relations, Industrial Marketing Management, and the Journal of Business Research.