ABSTRACT
Experts have become a regular component of many regulatory agencies, both governmental and non-governmental, influencing different stages of the knowledge production and the policy-making processes. They enjoy decisive authority in important fields such as climate change, environmental and energy policy, military policy, human rights and humanitarian aid and in the governance of the vast range of market regulatory arrangements. During the past two decades the number of experts employed or consulted on a contractual basis by national and transnational state apparatuses has risen exponentially (Stone 2001, Slaughter 2004). Many governments and international organizations increasingly fund so-called QUANGOs (quasi NGOs), non-governmental organizations and freelance consultants or research institutes to give policy advice. For example, in the context of the European Union (EU) the number of expert committees in 2003 was estimated to be about 850, with more than 50,000 expert group members (Larsson 2003: 15, Van Schendelen 2003). Many non-governmental organizations, pressure groups and private corporations also have developed their own research institutes or think tanks, to provide expert advice to the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, Mercosur and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as part of their efforts to influence the ideological agenda of global or regional governance. Likewise the private sector consults or employs external or in-house experts to provide specialized knowledge necessary for (cross-border) business transactions, creating a vast source of income for the so-called professional services industries, such as law and accountancy firms.
