Causal paths to varied political-administrative relations in policymaking

This chapter conducted a qualitative comparative analysis to verify the causal paths to varied political-administrative relations in policymaking. It first carried out a Boolean analysis of 18 cases reported in Chapters 2, 3 and 4. Five causal conditions for case outcome include similar career or professional backgrounds, intensive public mood, issue uncertainty, multiple jurisdictions and political appointees’ technical capability. The result of the Boolean analysis refined the hypotheses proposed in Chapter 1. To better explain the cases featuring similar causal conditions but a different outcome, the chapter conducted a nuanced comparative analysis of these cases and identified alternative causal conditions. These conditions include political uncertainty, supportive/critical public mood, policy goal sharing, blame shifting, ministerial responsibility and true political leadership. An additional feedback loop of reform implementation was discovered: the POAS and PAS reforms impacted the beliefs and policy preferences of civil-servant-turned POs despite the persistence of civil service values. An adjusted analytical framework incorporating the alternative causal conditions and the additional feedback loop was presented. The theoretical and practical implementations of the case findings and the framework were then discussed.