Studying the Policy Influence of International Public Administrations – A Conceptual Framework

In this paper, we propose an approach to conceptualize and systematically measure the influence of International Public Administrations (IPAs) on policy-making in international (governmental) organizations (IOs). IPAs, i.e., the secretariats of IOs that constitute the international counterparts to national administrative bodies, wield independent influence on the development and implementation of public policies. Previous research has successfully identified different administrative, political and context-related factors that might enable administrative influence to occur. However, integrative approaches that allows for a comparative empirical analysis of several explanatory factors under a common theoretical framework are rare. Thus, we still lack systematic knowledge of how international administrative bodies affect policy-making processes of IOs and global governance more generally. Against this background, we aim to contribute to the current debate in three ways. 1) We take stock of previous research on administrative influence, 2) introduce a conceptual framework and 3) develop a measurement scheme for administrative influence. Thus, the paper focuses primarily on administrative influence as the dependent variable. In order to explain administrative influence, the paper also proposes an explanatory model, which explicitly takes into account the role of IPAs' bureaucratic autonomy.