This article analyzes a model of the policy decision process in ministerial
governments. A spending minister and a finance minister are involved in ma
king a decision concerning a public project. The two ministers have partial
ly conflicting preferences. Policy decisions are made in two stages. In the
first stage the spending minister consults a technical expert to obtain in
formation about the technical consequences of the project. If the technical
consequences are favourable, in the second stage the finance minister cons
ults a financial expert to obtain information about the financial consequen
ces. The finance minister can veto a proposal for undertaking the project.
This article illustrates the consequences of specialization for information
transmission. A drawback of specialization is that projects are evaluated
on the basis of their individual consequences rather than on the basis of t
heir total consequences.