ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the drafter's input on the wider policy process. It also examines the role of drafters in each of the stages of the policy process in an attempt to show that drafters' input and involvement spans across most if not all of these stages. The chapter argues that what determines the extent of the drafter's role are: the size of the jurisdiction; and the nature of the drafter's appointment, for example, does the drafter work for a central drafting office, a ministry or local government. Strictly speaking in most liberal democracies policy initiation is usually the domain of the executive. Evaluation of legislation is central to the task of legislative drafting: To build a knowledge management system for legislative drafters one needs to understand how legislation compares to its alternatives. In civil law jurisdictions, especially in European States with large welfare programmes, policy evaluation has been rather slow in arriving and has not always been successful.
