Sausage Factory

As promised, an over-complicated flowchart of the influences on policy formation. You may need to click on the image and expand it (click on the the little expander icon in the bottom right corner of the image if your browser doesn't automatically show the full size (readable) image) to be able to read all the details.

The blue indicates official government channels, the orange indicates 'academic' work and the green indicates the media. Cross-hatching indicates those components which play a dual role of providing non-partisan analysis in the public interest and providing partisan talking points for political gain.