01472pab a2200169 454500 180718b2001 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d Howard Cosmo Bureaucrats in the social policy process: administrative policy entrepreneurs and the case of working nation 2001 p.56-65 Sep Much of the contemporary literature on Australian social policy tends to focus on broad environmental and institutional variables and to downplay the importance of the social policy decision-making process and its participants. Yet the study of specific cases in social policy-making reveals that senior administrators often have a significant impact on the direction of social policy reform. The income support reforms adopted as part of the former Federal Labor government's Working Nation package illustrate the potential for bureaucrats to influence the direction of change. Senior administrative officers within the former Commonwealth Department of Social Security played a crucial role in promoting reforms which increased the generosity of the means test on unemployment payments. These bureaucrats behaved as policy entrepreneurs and worked in a strategic manner to garner support for and reduce opposition to their proposals within the decision-making process. - Reproduced Social policy Civil service Australian Journal of Public Administration 50184 50184 50184 0 0 0 0 IIPA IIPA 2018-07-19 Volume no: 60, Issue no: 3 AR50612 2018-07-19 2018-07-19 AR