Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 27th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Panel: Politico-Administrative Relations in CEE Author(s) Samuel Krajnak Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Leuven Belgium Heath Pickering, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Title Ministerial Advisers in Slovakia: Who are They? The Backgrounds and the Career Paths of the Ministerial Advisers in Slovakia File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Samuel Krajnak Abstract This study is the first ever analysis of ministerial advisors in Slovakia. The survey examines who they are and how they became senior political advisors – by looking at the age, education, professional background, and the pre and post advisor career paths of personally appointed advisors to Slovak ministers under the last four governments between 2010-2019. The focus of this research was selected in order to indicate what resources, such as experience, knowledge, contacts and skills Slovak ministerial advisors bring to the job and what their recruitment patterns look like. Furthermore, such novel data collection will also enable others to conduct a large-scale comparative study on the topic. Firstly, ministerial advisors in Slovakia between 2010-2019 were mapped by using Freedom of Information requests. It was found that over the last nine years, there were 150 people employed as advisors by the ministries and Prime Minister’s Office. The total number of advisor positions in the monitored period was 206 as some advisors were employed on multiple occasions or at several ministries. To collect the necessary data, the identified advisors were contacted with a survey questionnaire (response rate of 20%) and in case of no reply, missing data was supplemented by publicly available information gathered through desktop internet searches, LinkedIn profiles and media reports. Findings indicate that Slovak ministerial advisors differ from their counterparts in other European and in Anglo-Westminster countries, as Slovak advisors generally start their job at a later age, are more highly educated and usually serve as advisors for shorter periods of time. A lot of variation was detected among Slovak ministries themselves in the number of advisors they employ, length of their employment as well as in regard to their educational and professional backgrounds. An important sub-group of advisors was identified in the Slovak context, the Prime Minister’s Council of Advisors, which differs from the rest of the advisors thanks to several distinctive characteristics. Generally speaking, it follows that Slovak ministers appear to hire advisors that are highly specialised in their field, seeking people with significant professional experience, policy knowledge and technical skills. They, however, also resemble advisors in other countries in terms of the variety of their professional backgrounds and lack of a formalised recruitment process.
