Knowledge in Search of Power: The Craftsmanship of Policy Professionals

This paper focuses on “policy professionals”, i.e. people who are employed to affect politics and policy, rather than those elected to office. It analyzes their work as a particular craft, combining specific motivations and skills. The paper builds on fieldwork conducted in Sweden in 2012–13, and the empirical basis consists mainly of semi-structured interviews with policy professionals in different positions and organizational types. The main motivation for policy professionals is found in a desire to wield power and influence the course of affairs, while the mundane working-life satisfaction often comes from getting their message into the media without becoming personally exposed to media attention. The key resource of policy professionals is context-dependent politically useful knowledge, in three main forms: “Problem formulation” involves highlighting and framing social problems and their possible solutions, using research and other relevant knowledge. “Process expertise” consists of “knowing the game” and understanding the “where, how and why” of the political and policy-making processes. “Information access” is the skill to be very fast in finding reliable and relevant information. These motivations and skills underpin an “entrepreneurial ethos”, which differs both from the representation-and-responsibility ethos of elected politicians, and from the public-spirit ethos of civil servants. I discuss the potentially problematic implications of the entrepreneurial ethos and more generally the mode of operation of