This book examines the "advice process" in Western Europe, looking at how governments actively acquire, passively receive and sometimes deliberately ignore specialist and informative advice. It describes how governments need to acquire information order to appear democratic and analyzes the various forms of advice required in different levels of policy-making. The book assesses: the role of the Royal Commission in Britain; policy evaluation techniques and economic policy-making in the USA, GB and Germany, including case studies on expert advice to the British government on diet, heart disease and Aids; mass media politics in Germany; the role of the Science and Technology Select Committee in Britain; and land use planning.