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Context
Governments have long been looking
for an optimal model to organise expert advise to public policy.
Unfortunately, such an optimal model may not exist, or at least the issue
is much more complex that anticipated. One of the reasons is that the
issue is more political than could be expected at first sight: what is
‘the best way’ to organise expertise depends on ideology-laden conceptions
of what expertise is to do for government policy, as well as preferences
for how to organise the public sector.
Over the last couple of decades,
Dutch expert advisory bodies have been overhauled extensively, a process
of reorganisation that seems by no means finished. This offers many
occasions to study changes in public sector advisory organisations and
related debates.
Meanwhile, European institutions
are developing their own practice of dealing with expertise. After decades
of relative secrecy, advisory committees are increasingly subject to
transparency rules and NGO scrutiny over corporate bias.
Specific topics
 | The formation of the new Dutch
planning bureau (Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving) |
| Changes in the Dutch advisory
sector (environment, agriculture, fisheries, or related) |
| The structure of expert
committees advising the European Commission (preferably environmental,
agriculture, fisheries and related, or in EU research policy) |
| The organisation of public
statistics in the Netherlands |
| The development of the Dutch
sector councils and their transformation into ‘expert networks’ |
Examples of interesting questions
| What arguments have been used in
the (re)organisation of the advisory sector? (EU, Netherlands,…) |
| How do expert organisations cope
with the changing political environment? |
| How do expert organisations
coordinate their expertise with policy needs? |
Suitable for students who…
| Have a background in policy
sciences or related social science (e.g. European Studies, Public
Administration) or STS (e.g PSTS) |
| An interest in public
institutions, on national or European level, particularly related to
advice and expertise |
| An interest in policy fields that
are knowledge-intensive |
Opportunities
| Access to other researchers on
this topic |
| Possible internships combined
with this topic, such as in advisory bodies, planning bureaus, or similar
institutions |
| Potential participation ongoing
research on this topic (Dutch advisory sector) |
Additional resources
Rethinking
Political Judgment And Science-Based Expertise: Boundary Work At The
Science/Politics Nexus Of Dutch Knowledge Institutes. (NWO research
project)
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