Management and quality: third-generation research into policy advisory systems

In this article, we argue that in order to better understand how Policy Advisory Systems (PAS) have evolved during the 21st century, we need to reframe consideration of their nature. This requires recognizing that what could previously be relatively precisely described as a highly institutionalized system of advice provision is now often a hybrid, where the weight of institutionalized sources of advice is declining, and more agile and fluid interconnections between the state and non-governmental organizations exist within a more varied and expanded ecosystem of brokers and producers. These developments have sparked a third wave of advisory system studies, which focus greater attention on the quality of advice provided by PAS and their managerial aspects in this new, and other more traditional, contexts. The findings and research agendas of this third wave are the subject of the essays contained in this special issue.