Policy Analysts in the Bureaucracy Revisited: The Nature of Professional Policy Work in Contemporary Government

TLDR: This article examined the duties and nature of contemporary professional policy analysis in the Canadian bureaucracy and revealed that contemporary policy work is constituted by more complex and multisided practices than Meltsner and his followers described.

Abstract: Thirty-five years ago Arnold Meltsner observed that professional policy analysts in the U.S. government undertook several roles in the policy-making process, the most common of which involved “technical” information processing while others were more “political” in nature. Although still prescient, more recent empirical studies of professional policy work have found little evidence of the predominance of technicians in the ranks of analysts employed in public policy bureaucracies. However, only very weak and partial information exists on the situation in most countries, and descriptions of the nature of policy work often remain primarily normative and lacking in empirical referents. This article reexamines the duties and nature of contemporary professional policy analysis in the Canadian bureaucracy. It reveals that contemporary policy work is constituted by more complex and multisided practices than Meltsner and his followers described. These findings are significant for those wishing to understand, and improve, the nature of policy work in contemporary government. Hace treinta y cinco anos Arnold Meltsner observo que los analistas legislativos profesionales en el gobierno de los Estados Unidos se encargan de diferentes tareas en el proceso legislativo, el mas comun involucraba el proceso de informacion “tecnica” mientras que otros eran de una naturaleza mas “politica”. Estudios empiricos mas recientes del trabajo profesional legislativo han encontrado poca evidencia del predominio de tecnicos en puestos analiticos en las burocracias del sector publico. Sin embargo, existe tenue y parcial informacion sobre la situacion de la mayoria de los paises y la descripcion de la naturaleza del trabajo legislativo permanece normativa y carente de referentes empiricos. Este estudio reexamina los deberes y naturaleza de analistas legislativos profesionales en la burocracia Canadiense y revela que el trabajo legislativo contemporaneo esta constituido por practicas mas complejas de las que Meltsner y sus partidarios describieron. Estos hallazgos son significativos para aquellos que deseen comprender y mejorar la naturaleza del trabajo legislativo en la gobernabilidad contemporanea.