Government Ministries as Policy Actors: Unpacking Ministerial Logics and Politics and Their Effects

Abstract

Government ministries are important to policymaking—they are active in designing, implementing, and evaluating public policies. Yet their unique role remains underexplored. Very recently, however, policy and bureaucratic politics research has begun to focus on ministries and their distinct policy, politics, and logics. This type of work assumes that different ministries (e.g., finance, welfare, foreign affairs) operate according to distinct logics and politics, which condition how they approach policymaking. This panel invites works on bureaucratic politics that examine 1. The role of individual ministries in the policy process and the relations between them 2. The way ministerial logic shapes and develops 3. The power relations between ministries and the conditions that affect them

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