Heath Pickering

KU Leuven | ku leuven

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...

The article examines the post-government career moves of 521 former British special advisers who served from 1997 to 2017. Analysis of an original dataset mapping the first job each special adviser ‘landed-in’ after leaving government shows the vast majority land in corporate lobbying and policy advocacy roles. A minority become politicians, althou...

This study examines the transparency of the regulatory framework under which ministerial advisors exist within the politicized context of a Central and Eastern European perspective. We compare profi les and career paths of ministerial advisers under fi ve diff erent types of coalition governments and examine if variance across government types can...

In this study, we question commonly held negative perceptions of minority governments and determine whether they can be trusted to deliver on the promises contained in governance agreements, whether they are stable in being able to govern over full terms of parliament, and whether they are productive in being able to successfully pass legislation....