Abstract
Policy work within government encompasses a large field of activities which can be loosely matched with different stages of policy process. This chapter deals with the role of policy bureaucracies in formulation of policy options.
In particular, it explores how has the nature of policy work within government evolved in different contexts till the present time. To this end, we provide a review of theoretical and empirical accounts of policy work focusing on three main aspects: 1. actual practices and professional identities of policy workers, 2. policy (analytical) capacity, and 3. policy workers involvement in politico-administrative relations.
Thus, we firstly elaborate on day-to-day activities done by policy bureaucrats, their professional values and different forms of knowledge they utilized. Secondly, we inquire into policy bureaucracies from policy (analytical) capacities perspective, focusing not only on quality and quantity of policy workers, but also on institutional arrangements for policy development and coordination in terms of organizational structures, processes and cultures.
Thirdly, relationship between policy bureaucrats and politicians is analysed with special attention to different types of politicization and their relation to policy formulation. The chapter concludes with discussion of state of the art of policy work research and its further development both in terms of theory and methodology.