Constructing expertise in the European Parliament: Democratic legitimacy, political actors and the role of gender

This paper examines the role of expertise in constructing the democratic legitimacy of European Parliament (EP) policy-making from the point of view of MEPs and EP political groups. It draws from and contributes to literature on ‘throughput legitimacy’ describing the quality of governance processes (Schmidt 2013; Fromage & van den Brink 2018; Schmidt & Wood 2019). To date, this literature has addressed expertise mainly as the inclusion of stakeholders and civil society organisations in policy processes; yet, expertise – and ideas of expertise – also inform the work of various actors involved in governance processes. Moreover, while scholars of EU governance have applied the concept of throughput legitimacy to assess concrete processes in policy areas and within different EU institutions, the role of individual political actors and their ideas has been less explored. Following up on the concept of ‘constructive throughput’ (Schmidt 2013) addressing the role of actors, the paper suggests that the ideas that the MEPs and political groups hold and advance can either promote or undermine the normative criteria of throughput legitimacy. By analysing MEPs’ views on expertise and its role in the EP framework, the paper aims to disentangle the micro-politics of expertise and knowledge within this representative EU institution and how that relates to European democracy. Focusing on a qualitative analysis of data based on interviews conducted in the 8th and 9th terms of the EP, the aim is to understand why, how and for what purposes political actors acquire knowledge and expertise, what kind of expertise is valued in the EP context, and what kind of role gender plays in ideas about expertise.