ACTIVITIES
Welcome to the CoREx activities section, where you can read more about members' recent work.
STSM Grant: Tom Bellens - University of Nottingham
January 19 - February 1, 2025
I spent two weeks at the University of Nottingham from January 19 to February 1, 2025, under the guidance of Professor Jan-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling. The primary aim of my stay was to advance research efforts within Working Group 2 (WG2) on ‘Career patterns in the executive triangle’ of COST Action CoREx, mainly through discussions on the development of a new data collection platform, the standardisation of a research template, and the refinement of methodological aspects of our career study research. Additionally, the stay provided an opportunity to engage with researchers, policymakers, and experts on the intersection of political science and public administration.
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During my stay, I was fortunate to participate in diverse research activities. The first week was particularly eventful as I joined a series of lectures, workshops, and meetings organised by Professor Meyer-Sahling and PhD student Nora Leach. A highlight of this period was the engagement with a delegation of Lithuanian government officials, which provided valuable insights into how different political systems approach the role of Scientific Advisors. In addition to attending sessions on the UK Government Office for Science, I gained a further understanding of the structure and functions of advisory roles in government, which contributed to my broader research on ministerial advisers.
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Beyond these structured events, I had in-depth discussions with Dr. Alex Marcoci on the use of AI and Large Language Models in political science and career research. These conversations were instrumental in refining certain aspects of the software platform we are developing for WG2, particularly in ensuring its applicability across different national contexts. I also presented the third chapter of my PhD at the REPRESENT research group, which led to constructive feedback and new ideas for framing my arguments.
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A significant milestone of this stay was drafting a preliminary template for WG2’s country-case research notes during a meeting with Professors Meyer-Sahling and Sylvia Veit. This template is expected to standardise data collection reports across different national teams, ultimately enhancing the consistency and reliability of our findings.
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Moving forward, the work initiated during this research stay will continue in several ways. The initial draft of the WG2 research template will be refined based on feedback from the broader working group. Additionally, the methodological discussions on AI applications in career research will be integrated into the ongoing development of our data platform. I also plan to explore potential collaborations with researchers at Nottingham, particularly in AI-driven career trajectory analysis.
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Future STSM participants may find it helpful to have clear research questions and objectives in mind to make the most of in-person discussions. While virtual meetings are useful, in-person exchanges often lead to deeper insights and more efficient problem-solving. Engaging with colleagues in different settings can also foster productive discussions.
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I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Jan-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling for hosting me and providing invaluable guidance throughout my stay. I also appreciate the support of COST Action CoREx for facilitating this research stay.
STSM Grant: Danique François - University of Oslo
January 11 - January 26, 2025
During my two-week research stay at Universitetet i Oslo, in collaboration with Professor Tobias Bach, I developed a dataset to collect country-specific data. The dataset focuses on the formal position of top civil servants, political advisors and ministers. Establishing the dataset marks the first step in gathering comparative data on the institutional set-up of the ‘executive triangle’ across a pan-European network.
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With the dataset and accompanying coding instructions, researchers within Working Group 1 (WG1) on ‘The institutional setup of the executive triangle’ can collect country-specific data, eventually leading to country comparative research on several indicators. For instance, country comparisons on the hiring procedure of top civil servants, senior civil service conditions, or the size of the minister’s political entourage. All data is derived from formal regulations, providing key insights into the framework within which these positions operate shedding light on what is possible within the formal context.
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Collecting data on such a large scale was a new challenge for me. In just two weeks, I learned an immense amount about managing large datasets, the foundations of conducting comparative analyses, and efficiently storing data. I also significantly improved my Excel skills (timelessly useful!) and explored various survey platforms. After testing different options and discussing them with Tobias and other scholars at the Institutt for Statsvitenskap, we concluded that Excel is the most suitable tool for this project. Alongside setting up the database, we also reworked the codebook into detailed coding instructions to guide the data entry process. This required me to step beyond the familiar Dutch context and consider diverse perspectives, ensuring the coding options were relevant across different countries. To put this into practice, in the final part of the research visit, we initiated pilot studies on the Albanian and Romanian cases, while testing the coding instructions and dataset ourselves using Dutch and Norwegian examples.
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I also had the opportunity to present my PhD research on political-administrative relationships during the section’s seminar. With all the scholars specialising in policy, bureaucracy and organisation (PBO) from the department gathered, I received valuable feedback that will help move my research forward. Besides the section meeting, I also had the opportunity to attend a PhD defence at UiO and connect with fellow PhD students and scholars in the fields of Political Science and Public Administration. These additional events elevated my Short-Term
Scientific Mission (STSM) at Uio, making the whole (snowy) experience even more valuable.
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I thank Tobias Bach and everyone at the Institutt for Statsvitenskap for warmly welcoming and hosting me during these two weeks!
STSM Grant: Pierre Squevin - CERSA (Study and Research Centre for Administrative and Political Sciences)
January 06 - January 21, 2025
During my three-week research stay at the CERSA in Paris, I collaborated with Natacha Gally on our project called Careers of Executive Triangle Actors in France - Collecting and coding biographies. My STSM lasted from the 6th to the 24th of January 2025 and occurred in the context of the Working Group 2 (WG2) ‘Career patterns in the executive triangle’ activities. Together with my French colleagues, we continuously reflected and discussed the career pathways of actors in the French executive triangle and their specificities (typical profiles, access routes to executive triangle positions, reforms and regulatory changes affecting career trajectories...).
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As planned, the first STSM moments were dedicated to organising our collaborative effort. That said, we rapidly met challenges, especially about delimiting the very perimeter of the top civil service in France, with implications about which positions to include or exclude from the career dataset. It took us several days to figure this out and carefully compile our final list of names.
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Our agreed-upon course of action involved coding a few ministerial advisers’ biographies to reconvene and collectively discuss coding issues. Once that was accomplished, we moved on to another round of coding centred on top civil servants, followed by another coordination meeting. Taking these recursive steps was key to quickly detect problems and address them. In the second week, we felt that difficulties concerning several codebook variables were spotted and resolved. This has laid the groundwork for forthcoming weeks of effective coding.
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Another decisive activity involved reviewing the legal framework governing the appointments and career development of executive triangle actors. We also recollected our knowledge of French politico-administrative elites’ recruitment, composition, and professional mobility dynamics. We also singled out relevant scholarly works, paying particular attention to methods, research choices, and strategies. Going through all this proved valuable in making more informed data-gathering and coding decisions and will still be very heuristic in future career analyses.
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An important output we managed in this STSM was coding around 130 biographies in three to four weeks (more than 50% of the total). We also exchanged fruitful ideas based on a pre-analysis plan, which will serve as a guide and template for later deliverables, such as a French country chapter.
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This STSM began a significant collaboration that will benefit WG2 and the Cost action. Advanced and regularly updated, French career research could be a powerful source of inspiration for many, but it often remains invisible as not conducted nor published in English. Having an active French team within COREX will partially remedy that lack of dialogue between communities.
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Academics at the host institutions showed great interest in our project and questioned us about our research goals. I also went to Parisian institutions like Sciences Po to give COREX some publicity. I reestablished connections with actors in the French ministries so that these bureaucrats could later feed information and discuss the results.
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Our priority is to build the French career dataset. Due to the rich and detailed biographic information in this database, there is a high publication and dissemination potential. To stack all the odds in their favour, my only advice would be that STSMees attentively prepare their stay in the weeks prior, for instance, by drafting a realistic time plan.
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I am deeply thankful to Natacha Gally, Anne Bellon, and all CERSA members for their warm welcome at the heart of Paris.
STSM Grant: Giulio Francisci - KU Leuven
September 30 - October 18, 2024
My three-week stay at the Public Governance Institute of KU Leuven occurred between September 30 and October 18, 2024.
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The stay took place within the framework of the activities of the Cost Action 22150 «Comparative Research on the Executive Triangle» (CoREx) and, more particularly, of the Working Group 2 (WG2) ‘Career paths in the executive triangle’. The Working Group aims to reconstruct and codify a range of biographical information, mainly career paths but also educational backgrounds and political experiences, of the members of various groups of the executive triangle (executive politicians, advisors, top bureaucrats in Ministries) to be able to carry out a comparative study between the various political-institutional contexts taken into exam.
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Thanks to the short-term scientific mission at the Public Governance Institute of the KU Leuven, I had the chance to meet other colleagues involved in the CoREx project and exchange views on research methodologies and theoretical issues. Data collection and analysis strategies, as well as theoretical frameworks to analyse the relationship between the actors of the executive triangles, constituted topics of discussion. During my stay, thanks to my interactions with colleagues, I had the chance to improve my background regarding research tools, especially data collection and management. This strengthened the possibility of effectively contributing, through the work on the Italian case, to the achievement of the working group’s goals.
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During the short-term scientific mission, I also had the chance to present my research in two seminars. In the first seminar, I presented some results of collaborative, wide-ranging research on policy advisory processes leading to the adoption of some administrative reform measures, particularly in the fields of procedural simplification and performance management. The seminar, providing the venue for discussion on the methodological and theoretical issues and the first results of this longitudinal study, allowed me to gather valuable suggestions from the broad audience of early career researchers working at the Public Governance Institute who took part in the seminar.
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In the second seminar, I presented some results of my research on one of the groups of actors making up the executive triangle analysed by WG2, ministerial advisors. In particular, the presentation focused on a series of biographical characteristics (gender, education, career path, previous experience as ministerial advisors, etc.) of the Italian top ministerial advisors (i.e. heads of cabinets and heads of legislative office) serving between 2001 and 2024. This seminar, by gathering some professors and colleagues with relevant expertise in this field of study, provided me with some ideas for developing my research, also from a comparative perspective with other countries whose ministerial cabinets have similar characteristics to the Italian ones.
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Some acknowledgements are due regarding the stay. My supervisor at the LUMSA, Professor Alessandro Natalini, kindly supported my application for the short-term scientific mission. Thanks to the hospitality of Professor Brans and all the colleagues working at the Public Governance Institute, who welcomed me as if I were a permanent member of their working group and not only a temporary guest, I had the opportunity to spend the three-week stay in a congenial milieu for collaboration and discussion: I am very grateful for this.
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List of presentations
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15.10.2024 Making Administrative Reform in Italy: Policy Advisory Processes and Policy Networks 1993-2018
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15.10.2024 Some Biographical Data of Italian Ministerial Advisers: Inputs for a Prosopographical Analysis (2001-2024)
STSM Grant: Petra Bayerová - Helmut-Schmidt University in Hamburg
September 9 - September 30, 2024
I spent a one-month research stay at Helmut-Schmidt University in Hamburg, Germany, in September 2024. Hosted by the Institute of Public Administration, Department of Economics and Social Sciences, my stay focused on advancing my research of bureaucratic politicisation from the angle of analysing the political and administrative elites’ profiles and careers. This very lens is also the topic closely linked to the objectives of Working Group 2 on ‘Career patterns in the executive triangle’ within the COREX initiative under the COST Action. Under the guidance of Prof. Sylvia Veit, one of the leading experts in the field of bureaucratic politicisation and specifically the prosopography method, I strengthened the theoretical foundation of my research and explored ways to expand its comparative scope.
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My primary research area, bureaucratic career paths, was central to my activities. I built on my previously developed original dataset of careers of political and bureaucratic heads of agencies in Slovakia. With part of the dataset already published (Bayerová, 2024) and another portion forming the basis of a work-in-progress article, I leveraged my experience in career-based research to refine my methodological approach.
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Another key aspect of my visit was engaging with the theoretical framework of my dissertation, particularly the concepts of front-stage and backstage politicisation (Veit and Vedder, 2024), and examining their applicability in the context of a patronage country and my dataset. Engaging in discussions with Professor Veit, I explored ways to enhance my study's comparative dimension. These activities directly contributed to the objectives of Action CA22150 by advancing the theoretical and empirical understanding of bureaucratic career paths.
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I also used the research visit to deliver a guest lecture to HU students and academics on the politicisation of agencies in Slovakia (Annex1), focusing on the specifics of this phenomenon in the highly politicised context of a post-communist country. This lecture was followed by an engaging discussion with fellow PhD students and academics, which proved inspiring and enriched my approach to the topic.
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The articles based on the discussed methodology are currently in progress and refined with the insights gained during my research stay. This experience has been
invaluable for my development as a PhD student, offering academic growth and the opportunity to build important professional connections. For future research stays, I recommend that PhD students come prepared with a clear outline of their research goals and be open to exploring new methodologies through active discussions. I found the collaborative environment both inspiring and beneficial. Participating in STSM is a great opportunity for the academic and professional growth of a PhD student in the final year who seeks to explore also career paths.
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I thank Professor Veit and her colleagues for their warm welcome and the exciting collaboration. A special thanks to CoREx: Comparative Research on the Executive Triangle in Europe for the opportunity to be part of their research community and for the generous grant that made this research possible. I am also grateful to my PhD supervisor Katarina Staronova, and my home institute, the Institute of Public Policy, for supporting my research and connecting me to international research networks.
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References
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Bayerová, P. 2024. Kto riadi úrady práce? Politizácia na úrovni riadiacich pozícií v podriadených organizáciách. In Sociológia - Slovak Sociological Review, vol. 56, no.1, pp. 5-28. 0049-1225. https://doi.org/10.31577/sociologia.2024.56.1.1
Veit, S., & Vedder, S. (2024). Measuring civil service politicization with career data: Backstage and frontstage political experience of top civil servants in the German ministerial administration. Public Administration, 102(3), 1119–1136. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12967