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... in all, the triangle in Denmark is characterized through a strong position of the minister, to whom both the civil servants and the special advisers direct their attention and have a strong relationship with (though that relationship arguably is closer for advisers than for civil servants). The relationship between the civil servants and the advisers is less strong and less institutionalized (see figure 2). ...
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This study explores the policymaking role of the chief of cabinet, as head of the partisan political staff and a central actor within politico‐administrative relations. We focus on the local government level, where the role of political staff is understudied. While the added value of partisan political staff can be diverse and comprise advisory and non‐advisory activities, we do assume an active policymaking role for the chiefs of cabinet within the local policy advisory system. The research question is: “How do chiefs of cabinet conceive their own policymaking role at the local government level?” Adopting an actor‐centered approach, this research studies 20 chiefs of cabinet in cities in the Belgian region Flanders, where the amount of political staff has risen sharply. Q methodology is used for self‐assessment of the policymaking role (Van Exel & De Graaf, 2005), with statements based on Maley's three arenas (Maley, 2015). The results show that multiple types of chief of cabinet exist, revealing variation within one single institutional system. The resulting taxonomy consists of three types of chiefs of cabinet, each with a different role and impact on both policymaking and the civil service: “The Whip,” “The Negotiator,” and “The Streamliner.”
Chiefs of Staff to heads of government hold a prominent position at the apex of the political executive. However, our knowledge of the personal and professional backgrounds of these unelected actors is surprisingly patchy. Not only is this an empirical gap, but it is also problematic as interactions between actors within political executives shape political decisions and ministerial operations. For this study, we present the most systematic dataset mapping the profiles of 56 chiefs of staff to prime ministers in four Westminster family countries from 1990 to 2021: Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand. Their profiles are examined in relation to four concepts: (1) descriptive representation; (2) career de‐separation; (3) institutional (in)stability; and (4) the revolving door. The demographic results illustrate how prime ministers' offices attract individuals with certain characteristics more than others. In order to bolster these results, more research on the chief of staff role is needed to demonstrate how prime ministers exert power and use these staff to strengthen their capacity to govern.
