The story so far: what we know (and don't know) about ministerial advisers

This chapter provides an account of what we know - and what we do not know - about ministerial advisers in modern democracies. Two main questions are addressed. First, what should someone with no previous knowledge of the topic know about ministerial advisers? Second, what should an active researcher know about the state of the literature on advisers: what issues have been covered - and where are the biggest gaps - and what leads for future research can be offered? The chapter addresses five main themes: the emergence of ministerial advisers; the institutional habitats in which they work; the functions and roles advisers perform; interactions with civil servants and politicians within the executive triangle (focused on key topics such as principal-agent theory, cooperation and rivalry, politicisation, and trust); and, finally, an evaluation of the scientific knowledge of adviser (mis)conduct, including the classification and assessment of adviser accountability frameworks according to function, mechanism, and purpose. The chapter points to three main leads for future research: the cross-fertilisation of studies with knowledge from various separate literatures which, to date, have not been talking to each other; an empirical expansion to cover systems beyond the usual suspects of North America, Europe, and Oceania; and the deployment of more sophisticated research designs.