Expertise in Transnational Politics: Policy Networks, Bureaucratic Authority and Experts in EU Development Cooperation

This paper looks at expertise, as a specialised form of ideas, which is at the heart of the EU’s policy processes. It is understood that expertise matters beyond informing policies instrumentally in that it plays a role for the competition within and between policy communities. However, to play an effective role in this competition, knowledge claims need to be considered authoritative. To understand how knowledge claims become recognised, this paper turns to policy networks. It understands networks as social arenas that give value to certain expertise, not only by favouring some experts over others, but also by shaping the expertise that is ‘produced’. This is not a unidirectional relationship. Networks increase the capacity of both societal actors and public administrators, and especially EU bureaucrats rely on the engagement of external experts to promote and legitimise common policies. This conceptual argument is illustrated for the case of EU development cooperation. Development cooperation in the EU is particular as 'hard' rules regulating the coordination between the EU and its member states are largely missing.