HEATH PICKERING
Fellow at the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute, Belgium
About me
I am a Fellow at the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute, Belgium.
I research and analyse the changing nature of political executives. My principal focus centres on exploring the institutional development of ministers’ offices and the rise of political advisers wedged between the nexus of politics and administration. Through my work on an international comparative politics project, I have gained specialised knowledge in the analysis of the four traditional Westminster family members: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. My project and tenure in Leuven were generously funded by a four-year fellowship from the Flanders Research Foundation (FWO).
Prior to moving to Brussels, I worked at the University of Melbourne for six years in several roles, including in Strategy and Government Relations in the Chancellery, Media and Communications at the Melbourne School of Government, and Teaching Assistant at the School of Social and Political Sciences. In earlier roles, I worked as a TV Producer at Sky News Australia and spent a year supporting a foreign aid project in Solomon Islands.
Contact
Email me at heath.pickering@gmail.com
Find me on LinkedIn
Profile on Google Scholar
Publications
Peer-reviewed articles
Pickering, H., Bellens, T., & Brans, M. 2023. The Prime Minister's Chief-of-Staff: A Profile and Changing Trends in Westminster Democracies, 1990-2021. Governance, 1-19.
Pickering, H., Craft, J., & Brans, M. 2023. Ministerial Advisers as Power Resources: Exploring Expansion, Stability, and Contraction in Westminster Ministers’ Offices, Parliamentary Affairs, gsad005, 1-23. (including supplementary material: ministerial adviser datasets and also features of ministers' offices in the four classic Westminster countries)
Orchard, D., Gouglas, A., & Pickering, H. 2023. Life after Whitehall: The Career Moves of British Special Advisers, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 0(0), 1-21.
Brenton, S., & Pickering, H. 2022. Trustworthiness, Stability and Productivity of Minority Governments in Australia, Parliamentary Affairs, 75(2), 308-339.
Krajňák, S., Staronova, K., & Pickering, H. 2020. Ministerial Advisers in Slovakia: Profiles and Career Paths, 2010–2020, NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy, 13(2), 115-140.
Book chapters
Pickering, H., Brans., & Peters, B. G. 2023. The comparative method in ministerial adviser research. In R. Shaw (eds), Handbook on Ministerial and Political Advisers. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 137-154.
Meert, A., Pickering, H., Brans., & Gouglas, A. 2023. Systematic Literature Reviews: Opportunities and limits in ministerial adviser research. In R. Shaw (eds), Handbook on Ministerial and Political Advisers. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 173-195.
Pickering, H. 2023. Glossary: common terms and concepts found in the literature on ministerial and political advisers. In R. Shaw (eds), Handbook on Ministerial and Political Advisers. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 419-426.
Book reviews
Pickering, H. 2022. Advising Governments in the Westminster Tradition: Policy Advisory Systems in Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand, by Jonathan Craft and John Halligan, Public Administration Review, 82(4), 778-780 (book review).
Pickering, H. & Brans, M. 2020. Government ministers and their "Special Advisers", Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 30(3), 521–523 (double book review).
Articles in progress (with other co-authors)
Executive Advisory and Support Offices: Exploring the Institutional Architecture of Ministers’ Offices
Sample of op-ed articles
Pickering, H & Gouglas, T 2023. Most Special Advisers become lobbyists after leaving government – new research, 28 February, The Conversation, London
Pickering, H 2020. Covid-19 to entrench 'big government' policies for good, 28 April, The Mandarin, Canberra
Pickering, H 2019. Why Canada has so many political advisers, 17 October, The Conversation, Toronto
Pickering, H 2018. Surviving Australian politics: 4 reforms to stop ousting leaders, 30 August, Pursuit, Melbourne
Pickering, H 2017. Australia’s Referendum Drought, 16 August, Pursuit, Melbourne
Brenton, S & Pickering, H 2016. The rise of LGBTIQ Politicians, 30 June, Election Watch, Melbourne
Pickering, H 2016. Brexit proves Baby Boomers should get less of a vote, 27 June, VICE
Teaching experience
Teaching Assistant in the Public Governance Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium
(2021–22) Policy Analysis (undergraduate level)
(2019–20) Comparative Public Policy in Europe (graduate level)
Teaching Assistant at the University of Melbourne, Australia
(2017–18) Public Policy Making (undergraduate level)
(2018) Comparative Politics (undergraduate level)
(2018) Politics and the Media (undergraduate level)
(2016–17) International Politics (undergraduate level)
Methods and techniques
I have published academic research using and/or explaining the following methods and techniques:
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)
Demographic analysis (sometimes called Prosopography)
Systematic Literature Review (including the systematic scoping review)
Comparative Methods
Regression analysis
Formulating typologies and indices
Case studies
I am also a member of the 'Executive Triangle' research network. Follow the link here to learn more about our research and activitites.