Browsing by Author "Eichbaum C"
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- ItemA third force?: Ministerial advisers in the Executive(New Zealand Institute of Public Administration, 2003) Eichbaum C; Shaw RH; Eichbaum, C; Shaw, RH
- ItemEnemy or ally? Senior officials' perceptions of ministerial advisers before and after MMP(Victoria University of Wellington, 2006) Eichbaum C; Shaw RHThere is now a well-established literature on the various second-order effects of the adoption of proportional representation in New Zealand. One feature of the contemporary executive landscape, however, remains substantially under-researched. This article reports on research regarding ministerial advisers in New Zealand Cabinet ministers' offices. More specifically, it compares senior public servants' current attitudes towards ministerial advisers with pre-MMP speculation regarding the possible future influence of such advisers. The article concludes that while there are concerns about the possible long-term influence of political advisers, for the majority of senior officials working relationships with ministerial advisers are positive and productive.
- Item‘From ménage à trois back to pas de deux? Ministerial advisers, civil servants and the contest of policy ideas’(International Public Policy Association, 2020-03-02) Shaw R; Eichbaum CThe institutionalization of the role of ministerial advisers in most parliamentary democracies has transformed what was once à pas de deux between ministers and senior civil servants into a ménage à trois. This article assesses the impact of ministerial advisers on the contest of policy ideas. It makes a theoretical case for paying closer attention to this issue than has thus far been the case, and assesses civil servants’ perceptions of advisers’ influence on contestability. The core conclusion, which is at variance with much of the scholarship on ministerial advisers, is that advisers pose a greater threat to policy contestability than to civil service impartiality.
- ItemIntroduction: Ministers, minders and mandarins(2018) Shaw R; Eichbaum C; Shaw, R; Eichbaum, C
- ItemMinding the minister? Ministerial advisers in New Zealand government(Royal Society of New Zealand, 2007) Eichbaum C; Shaw RH
- ItemMinisterial advisers and the politics of policy-making: Bureaucratic permanence and popular control(Blackwell, 2007) Eichbaum C; Shaw RHThe advent of ministerial advisers of the partisan variety - a third element interposing itself into Westminster's bilateral monopoly - has been acknowledged as a significant development in a number of jurisdictions. While there are commonalities across contexts, the New Zealand experience provides an opportunity to explore the extent to which the advent of ministerial advisers is consistent with rational choice accounts of relations between political and administrative actors in executive government. Public administration reform in New Zealand since the mid 1980s - and in particular machinery of government design - was quite explicitly informed by rational choice accounts, and normative Public Choice in particular. This article reflects on the role of ministerial advisers in the policy-making process and, on the basis of assessments by a variety of political and policy actors, examines the extent to which the institutional and relational aspects of executive government are indeed consistent with rational choice accounts of the 'politics of policy-making'. The reader is offered a new perspective through which to view the advent, and the contribution of ministerial advisers to policy-making in executive government. © 2007 The Authors Journal compilation © 2007 National Council of the Institute of Public Administration Australia.
- ItemMinisterial advisers, politicization and the retreat from Westminster: The case of New Zealand(Blackwell, 2007) Eichbaum C; Shaw RHPolitical advisers are an established third element in a number of Westminster-styled jurisdictions, as they are in New Zealand's institution of executive government. In this paper we report the initial findings of a research project focusing on the role and accountabilities of ministerial advisers in New Zealand. We locate these findings in the context of a growing body of international and comparative research on the role and accountabilities of non civil- or public-service advisers within political executives and comment on the extent to which the findings affirm or refute the view that the 'third element' constitutes a threat to the continued application of Westminster principles and practices in New Zealand's system of government - once described as more Westminster than Westminster. In doing so, we highlight deficiencies in standard conceptions of politicization and argue that there is a need to more clearly differentiate between its procedural and substantive dimensions. © 2007 The Author. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
- ItemMinisters, minders and the core executive: Why ministers appoint political advisers in Westminster contexts(Oxford University Press, 2014-07) Shaw RH; Eichbaum CPolitical advisers are now an established feature of the executive branch of government in the community of Westminster nations. However, there have been few attempts to establish why ministers appoint political staff, and even fewer that are empirically grounded in politicians' own experiences and reflections. The purposes of this article are to (i) establish ministers' motives for appointing political advisers, (ii) to theorise those motives through the lens of core executive studies and (iii) to assess the degree to which findings in one empirical setting enjoy wider applicability. Drawing on data from New Zealand, we find evidence that recourse to political advisers is one response to the multiple demands made of ministers in the context of contemporary governance; while that imperative has wider application, we also find that ministers' requirements are structured by personal and institutional variables which are contextually specific.
- ItemPolitics and administration: Some reflections on the 'Setchell Affair' (or boundary riding in the purple zone)(Institute of Public Administration New Zealand, 2008) Eichbaum C; Shaw RH
- ItemPurchase advisers and the public service: Who pays the bill?(Institute of Public Administration, 2009) Eichbaum C; Shaw RThe decision of the government to contract six purchase advisers in order to scrutinize public departmental spending is discussed. However, questions have been raised as to whether the contracting of the purchase advisers may have breached the State Sector Act.
- ItemRevisiting politicization: Political advisers and public servants in Westminster systems(Wiley Periodicals, 2008) Eichbaum C; Shaw RHIn recent times much has been made of the threat some argue is posed by political advisers to the impartiality of the Westminster civil service. Drawing on survey of senior New Zealand civil servants, this article examines the degree to which political advisers are perceived as a threat to civil service neutrality and describes the form taken by that threat as variously perceived. On the evidence reported, it is suggested that traditional understandings of "politicization" need to be reconceptualized if they are to fully account for the nature of the relationship between political and civil service advisers. To existing conceptions of politicization, therefore, the article proposes adding another: "administrative politicization," allowing for different gradations of politicization to be identified, and enabling a nuanced assessment of the nature and extent of a risk to civil service neutrality that, the data suggest, is not as great as is sometimes alleged. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
- ItemWhy we should all be nicer to ministerial advisers(2005) Eichbaum C; Shaw RH
