Policy advice and policy advisory systems are central subjects in policy scholarship. An understanding of the nature and take-up of policy advice produced by a variation of policy advisory actors is crucial for the discipline’s concern with the way in which policy-makers inform their analysis of policy problems and their search for effective solutions. From a micro-level perspective, current research focuses on who policy advisors are, what kind of advice they produce and with what effect. This panel, in turn, focused on a macro-level perspective on policy advice and on policy advisory systems as configurations of advisory actors in and outside government. The panel explored the link between configurations of policy advisory systems and political systems /regimes. It invited discussion on differences between jurisdictions along politico-administrative traditions, epistemological cultures, and political regimes, against the background of a number of macro trends such as evidence-based policy-making, externalization, and the rise of populist argument.