Special Advisers Research Articles

UKRAINIAN NATIONALISTS IN THE «VINETA» SPECIAL DEPARTMENT: HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS AND SOME PROSOPOGRAPHICAL OBSERVATIONS

The article examines the common elements of the biography of some Ukrainian nationalists who collaborated in the Special Unit "Vineta," which was created in 1941 in the structure of the Ministry of Public Education and Propaganda of the Reich for the purposes of total propaganda aimed at the population of the "eastern occupied territories," troops, rear population, prisoners of war and Ostarbeiters. The author shows that both in the full-time staff of "Vineta" and among the freelance advisers and involved specialists, there were well-known members of the Wire of Ukrainian Nationalists, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, participants in the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921, among them famous linguists, philologists, literary scholars, translators, journalists, artists, etc. The article contains data on eleven such persons. The author traces the elements of the "Vineta" stage of the life path of employees of the Special department, advisers, and consultants; hitherto unknown facts of their biographies have been established. For this, several recently declassified cases of former Soviet repressive bodies and documents of the State Center of the Ukrainian People's Republic in Exile were used as sources. It was found that there is no mention of cooperation with "Vineta" in any of the open biographies of the investigated personalities. New or relatively well-known facts about the biography of some personalities have been established or corrected. Reasonable doubts regarding the existing biography of Dmytro Narbut have been expressed: it has been proven that Yevhen Vyrovy was a member of the OUN; the facts from the Berlin period of Yosyp Pozychanyuk's life have been clarified, etc. A well-founded assumption was made that cooperation with "Vineta" was weakly correlated with participation in the Ukrainian liberation movement and was also not collaboration. It is shown that the common biographical feature of that part of the employees, whose life path was studied at one time, is direct involvement or tangentiality in the liberation struggles, greater or lesser participation in the political activities of emigration, repressions by the Soviet authorities; intellectual, creative activity, literature, journalism, fine arts, etc., in Europe or the USSR. Most of the former employees of the Special Department continued their activities even after the war in the fields of politics, economy, and culture. The author proposed directions for further research on this topic.

A slow-burning crisis: Executive relations and the normalisation of distrust in Northern Ireland's ‘cash for ash’ fiasco

This paper explores relationships between ministers, special advisers and civil servants through the lens of a high-profile government crisis in Northern Ireland (NI). Although political–administrative relationships are a mainstay of public administration research, we still have limited understanding of how these relationships feature and function within the ‘Westminster family’ of governance when operating within devolved institutions or post-conflict societies, nor of their role in crisis. We use Scott’s institutional pillars as an analytical framework and conduct a documentary analysis of public inquiry witness statements to explore the Renewable Heat Incentive crisis which led to the collapse of the NI legislature. Utilising a novel application of existing theory, we demonstrate that the implementation of the devolved, consociational power-sharing model incubated new governance norms, that prioritised and legitimised the agendas and actions of political actors (ministers and special advisers), over civil servants. Specifically, in understanding how relational norms – particularly distrust – feed public policy failure and institutional crisis, our findings contribute to this research area and to the broader public administration field. Government institutional crisis negatively impacts upon public service delivery and the wider health of democracy. Understanding such crises is an important first step in their amelioration. Points for practitioners Structural, systemic and day-to-day behavioural layering of distrust adversely impacts government professionals’ ability to recognise, communicate and respond to risk; this can create policy problems, which can escalate, unchecked, until they have become full-blown crises. In order to proactively mitigate crises in other public policy contexts, managers and teams should build in awareness raising, reflection and management processes to individual and operational performance reviews to improve relational norms, and prevent the normalisation of distrust.

Life after Whitehall: The career moves of British special advisers

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, although many continue to work in political organisations. The least popular choice is public service. The findings challenge the ‘lure of power’ hypothesis and lend weight to increasing concerns about former political staff revolving to shadow lobbying. The findings point to potential lobbying regulation loopholes first raised by the UK Committee of Standards in Public Life. A multi-nominal logistic regression shows how party affiliation and occupational path dependency constrain career moves. Labour special advisers are less likely to become corporate lobbyists than Conservative and Liberal Democrat ones. Special advisers also tend to revolve back to similar professional roles held before an appointment.

Theorizing The Under-Theorized SpAdocracy: The Role of Special Advisers Revisited

Theorizing The Under-Theorized SpAdocracy: The Role of Special Advisers Revisited

Nigeria’s Expensive Politics and Democracy: The Bane of Good Governance

The performance of Nigeria’s democracy coupled with its styled politics and governance has raised concern over its sustainability and survivability. One area where the democratic system in Nigeria has remained shamelessly scandalous is in the area of the expensive cost of managing the democratic structures of the state and the people that run them. The view being implied in this article is that Nigeria’s style of democracy with its expensive and corrupt tendencies is frustrating and inhibiting good governance. The extent of Nigeria’s expensive governance and politics is manifested in wasteful spending on personnel cost of political office holders such as Ministers, commissioners, special advisers and other executive and legislative aides who in most cases get paid without performing justifiable functions and responsibilities. Similarly, security votes which are appropriated and used by federal and state governments discretionarily have become conduit pipes for draining our national wealth. The suffocating impact of the high cost of governance on our national life has made it to assume a national emergency dimension. This paper therefore emphasises the need for government across all strata to reduce the cost of politics and governance, block all revenue leakages and channel the country’s wealth and resources to productive ventures so as to entrench good governance and set the country on the path of development. The paper recommends the discontinuation of appointing the ministers of state, the scrapping of security votes and the adoption of a unicameral legislature with a part-time arrangement among others as strategies for reducing the cost of governance. Keywords: politics, democracy, expensive, good governance, cost

Dealing with the crisis : The Brexit Spin

The professionalization of the political class has led to the emergence of key actors in public relations: the so-called “spin doctors”. Frank Esser offers the following definition: “‘spin doctor’ is an amalgam of ‘spin’, meaning the interpretation or slant placed on events (which is a sporting metaphor, referring to the spin a pool player puts on a cue ball), and ‘doctor’, derived from the figurative uses of the word to mean patch up, piece together, and falsify”. Through catchphrases and soundbites, they help candidates present their ideas in the best light possible. As political parties have become brands, the importance of those special advisers has grown, with the rise of powerful figures such as Peter Mandelson, Alistair Campbell or more recently Dominic Cummings. The marketing strategy developed over the past few decades has reinforced a feeling of distrust in politicians and a clear resentment towards the London elite. Far from undermining the role of spin doctors, it seems that the Brexit crisis has strengthened their positions. This paper analyses the influence of spin doctors on Prime Ministers during the Brexit debate, from the referendum campaign in 2016 to the delivery of Brexit in early 2020. Because the first role of spin doctors is to enhance the image of their candidate, we will focus on key moments when the incumbent Prime Minister was in the front line: the 2016 referendum campaign and the 2017 and 2019 general elections.

Groupthink, Polythink and the Challenges of Decision-Making in Cabinet Government

AbstractThe Chilcot report set out in detail its finding that the Blair Government had been prone to groupthink in its decision-making processes when leading Britain into the Iraq War. Subsequent British prime ministers have been in no hurry to change their style of governing in ways that might broaden decision-making circles and introduce the ‘challenge’ that Chilcot said had been lacking. This article draws on the literature on the psychology of group decision-making to examine the extent to which groupthink remains embedded in the processes of cabinet government in the UK. The article argues that the strongest driver of groupthink is the psychological disposition towards conflict of individual prime ministers. Drawing on interviews with ministers, civil servants and special advisers we suggest that the political authority of the prime minister interacts with their psychological predisposition towards debate to encourage groupthink, polythink or a more positive style of ‘vigilant’ decision-making.

Call a spad a spad: Special advisers advise, and ministers decide…Or do they?

Call a spad a spad: Special advisers advise, and ministers decide…Or do they?

From Government Office to Private PR: Career Patterns of Special Ministerial Advisers and the Privatization of Politics

This article presents a study on special ministerial advisers examining their careers beyond their role in the machinery of government. Applying a theoretical framework derived from the literature on the sociology of work and the transformation of the organization of politics in the Nordic welfare states, we make two theoretical points. First, special advisers are part of an emerging group of partisan policy professionals, and second, the characteristics of this group are best analyzed through the lens of the boundaryless career. By combining these two positions, we contribute to studies on special advisers by offering a longer career perspective, and we contribute to studies on the boundaryless career by analyzing a job market other than the dot-com and cultural industries. Mapping the entire career paths of all Danish special ministerial advisers from 2000 to 2017 ( n = 144), we show that the position of special adviser serves as a stepping-stone to a new labor market that typically culminates with a position in private public relations. This conclusion lends fresh support to concerns about the privatization of politics changing policy formation in the Nordic welfare states.

‘Córdoba, through Children’s eyes’. Assessing citizenship literacy in Early Childhood Education and Special Education classes

ABSTRACTThis dissertation assesses an innovation experience carried out by the RIECU network (Early Childhood Education Schools -Teachers’ Centre- University). The aim is to enable children to investigate the wealth of their city’s heritage through an inclusive proposal, due to the value of a paradigm of peaceful intercultural coexistence. 234 people participated: Early Childhood Education and Special Education teachers, advisers and children, as well as students and professors. The experience focused primarily on development of project to learn more about the monuments and main features of the three cultures that coexisted peacefully in the city of Córdoba. This project was assessed with the help of a mixed focus group in which all the parties involved participated. The data analyzed reveal that: (1) Children explored the main features of the monument assigned and the culture to which it belongs; (2) The innovation experiences positively impacted educational inclusion processes; and (3) Children did not acquire an overall understanding of the city as a paradigm of peaceful intercultural coexistence.

The unseen power of creative news management in government

PurposeLabour came to power in 1997 and immediately transferred many features of its party political news management style into government, overseeing the departure of most of the civil service communications leadership within two years, and developing the media management role of politically appointed special advisers. The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the changes in custom and practice that operated behind the scenes in government communications between 1997 and 2015, asking to what extent such changes challenge public trust in government in a liberal democracy.Design/methodology/approachThis study takes a longitudinal, qualitative approach through in-depth interviews with former civil servants, journalists and special advisers, together with documentary and archival evidence. The data were analysed thematically through the text-processing software, NVivo.FindingsThe paper finds that although the controversy over the 2002 dossier on Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction was an extraordinary episode, the creative approach to news management that characterised this case still operates within UK Government communications: the bypassing of civil servants, a partial approach to the facts, selective briefing of favoured journalists, a lack of due process in the management of information and a disregard for the letter and spirit of propriety codes. This has implications for public trust and confidence in the workings of liberal democracy.Originality/valueThe study adopts a mediatisation approach to the study of public relations, using the concept of the “cross field” to demonstrate how PR professionals share media management responsibilities with a number of different promotional actors. PR professionals in government must therefore navigate between the hidden, competitive and demanding worlds of politics, the media and bureaucracy, working with journalists, politicians and political operatives to craft the narratives that seek to drive public opinion.

Particularities of Tony Blair’ governments’foreign policy decision-making process

The present article is devoted to the problem of particularities of Tony Blair’ governments’ foreign policy decision-making process. The aim of the paper is to analyze the decision-making model formed by Tony Blair as well as to identify key factors which impacted the process of creation and implementation of foreign policy decisions in the framework of Tony Blair’ leadership model. It was concluded that Tony Blair had formed tree level decision-making system. Rolls of the Parliament and the Government in the deliberation process were frustrated. On the other hand, special advisers and so called selective committees impacts were strengthened. This institutes played the role of consulting bodies on specific issues of the agenda. Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs were the driving force of all process. But usually the second one was like the executor of Prime Minister’ decision.
 Keywords: Leadership model, decision-making process, blairism

Political-administrative relations: The role of political advisers

AbstractMinisterial advisers were first formally appointed as support for individual Irish ministers in 1973, and since then their numbers and tasks have considerably expanded. As ‘temporary civil servants’, they are regarded as both an accepted and criticised feature of executive government. This article focuses on the role of political staff during the period 2011-16 and centres on the period of the economic crisis and its immediate aftermath. It considers themes arising in the international literature that raise questions for the reform of the Irish ‘special adviser’. In order to unpack the specifics of the Irish case, the position and function of special advisers are explored through two theoretical perspectives - public adviser bargains and the core executive. It is argued that the special adviser continues to fit somewhat uneasily within the imperatives of the political-administrative system because they are personally appointed by ministers and their selection is determined by the level and type of support required by individual ministers, as opposed to any preordained skills set.

Between mediatisation and politicisation: The changing role and position of Whitehall press officers in the age of political spin

Despite widespread critiques of ‘political spin’, the way governments engage with the mass media has attracted relatively little empirical attention. There is a small but growing body of research into bureaucracies’ responses to mediatisation from within which have identified tensions between bureaucratic and party political values, but this has not included the United Kingdom. There are concerns that the traditional dividing line between government information and political propaganda has come under increasing pressure as a higher premium is placed on persuasion by both journalists and politicians battling for public attention in an increasingly competitive market. Within Whitehall, the arrival of Labour in 1997 after 18 years in opposition was a watershed for UK government communications, allowing the government to reconfigure its official information service in line with the party political imperative to deploy strategic communications as a defence against increasingly invasive media scrutiny. Public relations, in government as elsewhere, has grown in scale, scope and status, becoming institutionalised and normalised within state bureaucracies, but how has this affected the role, status and influence of the civil servants who conduct media management? Within the system of executive self-regulation of government publicity that is characteristic of Whitehall, government press officers must negotiate a difficult path between the need to inform citizens about the government’s programme, and demands by ministers to deploy privileged information to secure and maintain personal and party advantage in the struggle for power. Taking 1997 as a turning point, and through the voices of the actors who negotiate government news – mainly press officers, but also journalists and special advisers – this article examines the changing role and position of Whitehall press officers in what has become known as the age of political spin, finding that profound and lasting change in the rules of engagement has taken place and is continuing.

Book Review: Ben Yong and Robert Hazell, Special Advisers: Who They Are, What They Do and Why They Matter

Book Review: Ben Yong and Robert Hazell, <i>Special Advisers: Who They Are, What They Do and Why They Matter</i>

Political Contest and Oppositional Voices in Postconflict Democracy

This article investigates how political institutions affect government–media relationships. Most studies of media-politics focus on majoritarian parliamentary or presidential systems and on how party systems affect journalism. This tends to neglect important issues that pertain in more constitutionally complex democracies, such as the consociational institutions in postconflict societies. Taking the Northern Irish context as a strategic case study, we analyze data from thirty-three semistructured interviews with the actors responsible for communicating political issues in Northern Ireland: political journalists and the two groups of government communicators, civil service Government Information Officers (GIOs) and Ministerial Special Advisers (SpAds). By examining their roles and relationships in this context, we demonstrate the importance of considering the institutional design of the democratic system itself when attempting to develop a more comprehensive and nuanced theory of media-politics. In Northern Ireland, the absence of an official political opposition in the legislature, together with the mandatory nature of the multiparty coalition, means that the media have come to be perceived by many political and media actors as the opposition. This in turn influences the interpersonal interactions between government and media, the way political actors try to “manage” the media, and the media’s approach to reporting government.

Book review: H Annison, Dangerous Politics: Risk, Political Vulnerability and Penal Policy

Harry Annison’s Dangerous Politics is an in-depth study of the ‘creation, contestation, amendment, and abolition’ of the controversial indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) (Annison, 2016: 3). The book addresses the important question, first posed by Brown (2010: 43), of ‘why, in modern liberal societies, do we seem so willing to trade away the liberty rights of those deemed dangerous and why in such a wholesale fashion?’ (p. xi). Annison uses a framework of ‘interpretive political analysis’ (p. xii) to explore how and why the IPP sentence came into existence, and why potentially restraining influ- ences appeared to have little effect on the progress of a policy that was to prove so damaging. By weaving a rich and authoritative narrative, he skilfully incorporates materials from an impressive 63 qualitative interviews with key actors and observers, including politicians, civil servants, special advisers, judges and criminal justice practitioners.

Legislating Hierarchies of Victimhood and Perpetrators

This article interrogates the premise that the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2013 (SPAD Act) serves victim interests in Northern Ireland. It draws on theoretical literature from the fields of transitional justice and victimology as well as empirical data relevant to the act, to critically evaluate the practical outworkings of the SPAD Act as distinct from the politically charged rhetoric that accompanied its initiation and passage. In doing so, the article contends that the SPAD Act moves political disagreement over the issues of victimhood and wrongdoing in Northern Ireland onto a formal legislative footing. The article critiques the terms ‘innocent victim’ and ‘justice’ within the confines of the SPAD Act debate and argues that the narrow and divisive approach to these concepts has created both a post-conflict hierarchy of victimhood and a hierarchy of perpetrators that sustains and fuels disagreement over the past in the North of Ireland.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road: New Directions in Studying Political Advisers in Executive Government

Once upon a time they may have lived in the dark (Blick, 2004), but in recent years a good deal of academic light has been thrown on political advisers—variously described as special advisers, mini...

Democratic Communication and the Role of Special Advisers in Northern Ireland’s Consociational Government

This article examines the role of ministerial special advisers (SpAds) in Northern Ireland’s government communication. Using data gathered from elite interviews with SpAds, government information officers, and political journalists, we argue that the role of the SpAd is influenced by the post-conflict political culture in Northern Ireland and the consociational structure of government. The article suggests that current theorizing of the role of SpAds in democratic societies must also take account of how they operate within mandatory coalitions such as those found in Northern Ireland. We call for more research into their communication role in post-conflict consociational environments.