TY - CHAP A1 - Bach, Tobias A1 - Hustedt, Thurid A2 - Shaw, Richard T1 - Chapter 23: Policy-making in the executive triangle: a comparative perspective on ministers, advisers, and civil servants T2 - Handbook on Ministerial and Political Advisers N2 - This chapter seeks to bridge existing research on the politicisation of top civil servants and the roles of ministerial advisers by proposing a new conceptual approach for the comparative analysis of executive policy-making. We conceive of the executive triangle as a set of interdependent relationships between ministers, civil servants, and advisers. Those relationships may take different forms, depending on the distinct tasks performed by each actor and their roles in policy-making, which define mutual expectations. Thus understood, the executive triangle is an institution performing particular functions in policy-making (such as assessing policy alternatives, anticipating political support, and coordinating with other actors both inside and outside government). Those functions are performed by actors within the triangle and reflected in their roles and their direct and indirect relationships. The chapter conceptually explores such a system-perspective on the executive triangle; sketches analytical dimensions for understanding similarities and differences of executive triangles across contexts; provides empirical illustrations of variations of the executive triangle in Europe; and develops a research agenda using this concept to better understand the roles of ministers, ministerial advisers, and top civil servants in executive policy-making in a comparative perspective. KW - Civil servants KW - Comparative public administration KW - Executive triangle KW - Ministerial advisers KW - Policy advice KW - Politicisation Y1 - 2023 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-hsog/frontdoor/index/index/docId/5032 U6 - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800886582.00034 SP - 338 EP - 351 PB - Edward Elgar Publishing CY - Cheltenham, UK ER -