The epistemic quality of expert bodies: from normative-theoretical concept to empirical measurement

Abstract

Abstract The ubiquity of experts in contemporary policy-making has been met with enthusiasm in some quarters, but has also faced severe criticism. Beyond the democratic concerns regarding expert power, critics have raised worries about whether experts actually contribute to increasing the epistemic quality of policies, in line with normative expectations. Yet, so far, limited attention has been paid to the specific conditions under which experts involved in policy-making are likely to live up to such expectations. The article outlines a set of such conditions and empirically examines their fulfillment in the case of a real-world expert body. The article contributes theoretically to normative political theory about the proper role of expertise in policy-making; methodologically by linking normative theorizing and empirical analysis; and empirically through a longitudinal analysis based on large-n data of the extent to which the expert body under scrutiny satisfies a set of quantifiable empirical indicators of the proposed conditions.