Abstract

This article reviews the literature on policy advice and policy advisory systems by taking into consideration three sets of basic questions: who the policy advisors are; what type of policy advice they deliver; and how they intervene in the policy process and in policy dynamics. The literature review highlights some common traits of policy advice, including the differentiation, the externalization and the politicization of policy advice. It emphasizes the importance of the study of the content and the products of policy advice. It proposes some ideas to design comparative research that uses the policy subsystems and the policy sectors as units of analysis.