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Faith in the Power of Expertise? Regulators, Industry and the Public

Governance
Institutions
Public Administration
Public Policy
Regulation
Knowledge
Power
Policy-Making
P162
Sandra Eckert
Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Dovilė Rimkutė
Leiden University
Johan Christensen
Leiden University

Building: VMP 8, Floor: 1, Room: 105

Thursday 15:50 - 17:30 CEST (23/08/2018)

Abstract

“Faith in the power of expertise as an engine of social improvement - technical expertise which neither legislators, courts nor bureaucratic generalists presumably possess - has always been an important source of legitimisation for regulators” (Majone 1997: 152) In this panel we focus on the role of expertise in the regulatory process. We start out from Majone’s argument about faith in the power of expertise provided by regulatory authorities. Taking up the argument in the literature on private authority that business equally disposes “special expertise” (Cutler 1999:4), we further expand this view to the role of industry in the regulatory process. More specifically, we seek to explore: Under which conditions is regulatory and private expertise considered to be legitimate? How do experts seek to generate faith in their role in the regulatory process, notably vis-à-vis the public? We look for contributions from different theoretical angles, covering regulatory authorities and/or business actors in different sectors such as financial markets, network industries, environmental policy or risk regulation. Papers covering cases that involve distrust or crisis of expert schemes are of particular interest to us.

Title Details
Beyond Expertise? Legitimation Strategies in the EU Regulatory State View Paper Details
The Impact of Private Consultancies in EU Governance: A Document Analysis of Knowledge Production for Rail Liberalisation View Paper Details
Faith in Scientific Expertise and the Organizational Distribution of Knowledge: Climate Change Policy Networks in Germany and Japan View Paper Details