Consultancies in public administration

Abstract

Public administrations increasingly rely on consultancies to acquire policy knowledge, assess stakeholder dynamics, and evaluate governance systems. In this symposium, we explore the drivers and effects of this trend. Consultants offer advisory services, articulate governance trends, provide technical and programming expertise, as well as evaluation functions. Historically consultancies were introduced to public administrations to prevent market dominance and to respond to demands for specialized professional services.This relationship morphed into an expanded global market for a wide range of consultancy services that national and international administrations purchase. We explore how consultancies and public administrations interact through a discussion of task-setting based on recognition of: (i) what party can make claims to support a public ethos, (ii) what forms of expertise are most relevant for solving the problem, and (iii) status in who can best tackle uncertainties. | INTRODUCTIONThe task of governing through public administration belongs to governments and the organizations to which they have delegated authority. In recent decades, national and international public administrations have taken on more advice from consultancies in how their core tasks are defined and implemented. This includes not only specialist and technical fixes for operational issues, but also counsel on what stakeholders and constituencies are relevant, as well as frameworks for policy articulation and evaluation.

When bureaucratic expertise comes under attack

“…Yet, it also leaves out alternative providers of policy‐relevant knowledge. In recent decades, bureaucrats have faced increasing competition from external suppliers of policy knowledge, such as consultants and think tanks (Campbell and Pedersen 2014; Craft and Howlett 2013; Seabrooke and Sending 2022). Nonetheless, policy bureaucrats still have an important knowledge role to play, not only because they are structurally located close to ministers but also because a lot of external expert advice is routed through the bureaucracy.…”

Democratic Crisis in the 21st Century and Research Challenges in Public Administration

“…Similar to the sectoral organization of the public machine, our journals have published research on health administration, education, environmental policy, assistance, housing and sanitation, social security, transportation, as well as public management performance evaluation; public, social and decision-making policies; strategic management of people and management by competencies; administrative reform, public debt, modernization and regulation; third sector, NGOs, social movements and social participation; risk management, sustainability, citizenship and accountability, among others (Brasil & Jones, 2020;Brunozi Junior, 2022;Dijissey Shikida, 2022;Marques, Chimenti, & Mendes, 2021;Norman & Alemán, 2022;Seabrooke & Sending, 2022;). The list is long, and our intention is neither to be exhaustive nor to systematically review the field's production, but rather to bring some elements to the debate.…”

Outsourcing the Business of Development: The Rise of For‐profit Consultancies in the UK Aid Sector

“…Gulrajani, 2017; Mawdsley, 2019; Pauselli, 2019). By comparison, the literature on consultancies in aid is small, if growing (including Broome, 2021; Brunt and Casey, 2022; Hayes and Westrup, 2014; Keele, 2019; Nagaraj, 2015; Roberts, 2014; Seabrooke and Sending, 2019, 2022; White, 2020). The presence of for‐profit consultancies in the aid landscape, now deeply embedded and omnipresent in practice, raises questions for critical development scholars around the scope and implications of their specific development rationalities and practices.…”