It is common to find statements such as Halligan’s (1995) assertion that a good advice system should consist of:

at least three basic elements within government: a stable and reliable inhouse advisory service provided by professional public servants; political advice for the minister from a specialized political unit (generally the minister’s office); and the availability of at least one third-opinion option from a specialized or central policy unit, which might be one of the main central agencies.

And in all cases a major role in policy formulation and policy design is played by these kinds of core actors, such as professional policy analysts, central agency officials and others (Page 2010; Renn 1995).

However, it is also important to note that their influence becomes more direct, although also more constrained, as the formulation process becomes focused on particular and more precise design dimensions (Meltsner 1976). That is, in a typical policy design situation, not all elements of a policy are at play and the range of choices left to designers at the micro-level of concrete targeted policy tool calibrations is restricted by general policy aims and implementation preferences which, in turn, inform meso-level considerations about alternative policy objectives and policy tool combinations.

Thus in many design situations, general abstract policy aims and implementation preferences can often be taken as given, establishing the context in which design decisions relating to programme-level and on-the ground specifications are made by policy insiders and core actors. And in many cases, even the goal components of these last two levels of policy may be already established, leaving the designer only the task of establishing specific policy tool calibrations which cohere with these already existing or well established policy elements. How the macro, meso and micro elements of a policy process fit together, then, is a critical determinant of how key actors view and articulate the range of policy alternatives available to them, and thus a critical component of policy formulation and policy design (Walker 2000; Walker, Rahman and Cave 2001).