Upcoming Special Issues
Title: The Role of Expert Knowledge in EU Executive Institutions
Guest Editors: Professor Åse Gornitzka (Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway; E-Mail: [email protected]) and Dr. Cathrine Holst (ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway; E-Mail: [email protected])
Deadline for Submissions: 28 February 2014 (abstract) | 1 June 2014 (full paper)
Information: This special issue will explore the use of expert knowledge in decision-making in and by EU executive institutions. Developments in the EU are decisive for executive organisation and politics in Europe, in particular due to the position of the European Commission as the EU’s executive centre, but also because of the growing number of EU level agencies. Expertise has played a pivotal role in EU executives since the Union was established, but its significance is arguably increasing and takes on new shapes. What characterizes EU’s executive organizations reliance on expert advice and judgment? How is the use of expertise organized? How can variations in functions and organization of expertise most properly be explained? And what are the implication of expertise organization and variation for policy outcomes, institutional dynamics and democratic legitimacy?
This special issue invites contributions:
1) on the different functions of expertise in decision-making in the EU, in particular the relationship between the epistemic or problem-solving function and processes of expertise politicization;
2) on institutional conditions for and implications of EU executives’ use and organization of expertise;
3) that explore the different categories of expertise, and contribute to explaining variation in expertise constellations;
4) that provide institutionally oriented analyses and assessments of the adequacy and normative legitimacy of EU expertise arrangements, moving beyond sweeping normative diagnoses of EU decision-making as either “democratic” or “technocratic”.
Keywords: agencies; democracy; EU; European Commission; executives; expertise; institutionalism; institutions; technocracy
Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper to this Special Issue are kindly asked to send their abstracts by email to Mr. António Vieira ([email protected]) by 28 February 2014.