Introduction

Following the development of decision making in the Western democracies (see Radaelli 1998; Brown 2008, 2009; Robert, 2010; Fobé et al, 2013) characterised by shifts from traditional state-centred, hierarchical models towards more horizontal decentralised governance patterns (Craft, 2014, p 42; Howlett, 2011, p 248), governmental and departmental advisory bodies have recently been acknowledged as inherent components of the policy-making process in the Czech Republic. These councils and committees are set up primarily to provide the government with expert advice in a wide range of public policy areas in order to boost their policy (analytical) capacity (see Howlett, 2009). They include varying numbers of representatives of government (decision makers), bureaucrats, representatives of various public or private institutions and appointed ‘independent’ experts. They are very heterogeneous in terms of their size, scope, mission, resources, composition, influence and accountability to government. Moreover, all these aspects within most of the bodies evolve substantially over time due to changes in the composition of the government, duration of its term, its priorities and its stability as well as the government's willingness to take advice from the existing or newly set up advisory bodies and to cooperate with them. Given the extreme political instability of the Czech Republic, the level of dynamics within some of them is very high.

We can identify several reasons for involvement of these bodies in the policy-making process. Above all, increasing complexity of policy making with respect to engagement in supranational, transnational and international policy networks; a developing knowledge society; and a drift towards evidence-based policy making and scientification of politics (and politicisation of science) have contributed to the emphasis on knowledge and policy advice in contemporary policy making that has also been reflected in the Czech Republic. However, advisory councils and committees have a surprisingly long tradition in Czech policy making. Under communist rule, there was a well-established state policy advisory system at the central level as well as many bodies directly governed by the ministries which were supposed to provide policy advice within the limits of the official ideology (Vesely, 2012, p 3). Besides these, some cases of relatively independent advisory bodies appointed by the government in that era are also known.