Ministerial advisers, politicization and the retreat from Westminster: The case of New Zealand

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2007
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Blackwell
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Political 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.
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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 2007, 85 (3), pp. 609 - 640
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