About the project
Experts are seemingly everywhere nowadays, providing advice on everything from economic policy to climate change and the pandemic response. But to what extent do experts actually influence public policies? What are the implications of expert influence for democracy and good governance?
The project "The influence of experts on public policy" (INFLUEX) tackles these questions head-on using innovative methods and combining perspectives from the social sciences and philosophy.
Project aims
INFLUEX aims to map, analyze and assess the influence of experts on public policy and debate. This will be done through empirical studies of the policy influence of expert bureaucracies, advisory commissions, international expert bodies and citizen experts.
To identify expert influence, the project draws on new methodological approaches such as citation analysis and ‘plagiarism’ analysis. INFLUEX also examines the question of how much influence experts ought to have in a democracy, taking into account both the epistemic quality of policies and democratic concerns.
