Following the Yellow Brick Road: Theorizing the Third Element in Executive Government

Abstract

Political advisers—as a relatively new actor in executive government—are attracting increasing scholarly attention. The dominant orientation to date has been empirical, and there is a strong case for a more explicitly theoretical turn in the study of political advisers. The purpose of this article is to sketch a series of settings in which theorizing might fruitfully be pursued. The article seeks to locate the existing empirical work in the contexts set by four dominant narratives in political science and public policy.