How Do International Bureaucrats Affect Policy Outputs? A Process-Based Explanation for Bureaucratic Influence in International Organizations

The paper investigates how IPAs influence policymaking within International Organizations (IOs). Studying politico-administrative relations and especially the influence of public bureaucracies on political decision-making is a longstanding concern of Public Administration research. Starting from a conception of IOs as political-administrative systems, we scrutinize the available literature on domestic and international administrations to systematize the strategies international bureaucrats use to affect IO policies. Building on a most similar systems design and an online survey, three cases of bureaucratic influence are selected (two WHO policies and one ILO policy). We use interview material gathered from IPA staff and stakeholders to identify varying influence strategies and the conditions under which these strategies are used. The study shows how and under which conditions IPAs are able to exert influence and offers new opportunities to extend the generalizability of public administration theories.