Studying the Policy Influence of International Public Administrations – An Illustration of a Potential Way Forward

In this paper we argue for a more systematic approach to understand bureaucratic influence of International Public Administrations (IPAs)—in particular in view of the policy-making activities of international organizations (IOs). It is well established that IPAs, i.e., the secretariats of IOs, wield independent influence on the development and implementation of public policies. Previous research has identified different administrative, political and context-related factors that facilitate or hinder administrative influence. However, integrative approaches that allow for a comparative empirical analysis of crucial explanatory factors under a common theoretical framework are missing. 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 put forward some pragmatic propositions that may help overcome some of the current challenges in research on international administrative influence and increase our knowledge as regards when and under which precise conditions IPA influence occurs. In order to show how the proposed research strategy can be implemented empirically, we illustrate our proposals by applying them to two cases of IPA influence.