Punching above their weight or falling flat? Flagship policy modernisation initiatives in Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand

Abstract

Concerns of a decline in public service policy capacity coupled with evolving policy advisory systems have seen public services seek to reform their policy capacity and practices. This article examines the flagship policy modernisation initiatives launched by the Australian, Canadian, British, and New Zealand governments. Comparative analysis reveals a shared emphasis on overarching objectives, but important differences in their design, how they are embedded within the public service, and their comprehensiveness. The New Zealand and British initiatives are found to be the most comprehensive and stable, while the Canadian and Australian approaches suffer from repeated reinvention exercises and resource and leadership precarity. An examination of these initiatives also provides new insights into understanding the trade-offs and tensions around how these initiatives aim to address public service policymaking and effective advisory system participation.

Points for practitioners

• The public service's role within advisory systems is evolving and needs to be carefully reconsidered.
• Senior officials need to get serious about effectively scoping reform initiatives and being clearer about the trade-offs associated with broad or more targeted approaches.
• Initiatives are drastically under-resourced even in the best of scenarios. Governments and senior officials need to step up and invest in sustainable and well-institutionalised initiatives.
• Practitioners will need to be creative about how and where they can access tools and approaches to improve their policymaking in cases where governments continue to under-resource policy modernisation.