Professional Roles for Policy Analysts: A Critical Assessment

Analysts who act as employees or advisors in agencies that make public policy may find themselves operating in any of several different roles. They may see themselves as objective technicians, above the political fray, or as advocates of causes of their own choosing, or as unquestioning proponents of the positions adopted by their employers. Their choice of roles will differ, according to some systematic characteristics found in the environment. Any serious effort to develop a code for the behavior of policy analysts must take these differences into account.