Measuring Expert Authority of International Public Administrations

Scholars in International Relations increasingly observe that intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) enjoy expert authority. This observation raises the question to what extent international public administrations (IPAs), which are embedded in IGOs as distinct entity, enjoy expert authority, too, and what determines their expert authority. In this paper, we elaborate a basic methodological approach that we generally deem most suitable when assessing and explaining the expert authority of IGOs/IPAs. We start with a brief discussion of the theoretical and conceptual foundations of our understanding of expert authority. Essentially, we argue that expert authority is a relational construct and (many of) its determinants are perception-based, namely the complexity of a given policy issue as well as the performance and neutrality of IGOs/IPAs. In the main part of the paper, we elaborate the methodological approach to measure expert authority and its perception-based determinants. Initially, we therefore assess previous approaches to the study of (expert) authority of IGOs/IPAs. Against this background, we ultimately propose to use surveys for capturing expert authority and its determinants. Subsequently, we elaborate the basic methodological approach by operationalizing expert authority and its perception-based determinants. Here, we also make some tentative proposals for survey questions by which expert authority and its perception-based determinants may be grasped. Eventually, we discuss different options for the ultimate choice of the specific survey mode in the study of expert authority of IGOs/IPAs. To this end, we contrast advantages and disadvantages of various survey modes with regard to specific respondent groups.