How Much Is Policy Advice Changed and Lost in Political Translation?

Abstract

This chapter focuses on government-appointed advisory commissions in Norway and Sweden and investigates how and to what extent their respective governments use the evidence produced in these commissions for education policymaking. Drawing on the concepts of network governance and multi-centric policymaking, it compares reference patterns (a) between Green Papers (GPs) and White Papers (WPs) and (b) between Norwegian and Swedish GPs. The results show that the WPs produced by the ministries share strikingly few references with the GPs produced by their appointed commissions. An in-depth analysis of the references which “made” it to the political level demonstrates how knowledge gets lost, rebalanced, or reinterpreted in the policy process. This chapter situates the findings within discussions on the changing role of advisory commissions in today’s policymaking.