Balancing Bureaucrats, Interest Groups, and Experts. Danish Public Committees 1980-2017

Denmark has - as the other Scandinavian countries - a long corporatist tradition according to which interest groups are integrated into policy preparing and implementing processes. During the latter decades an increasing number of committees have also had experts as members. Their presence and role are much less well analyzed than the role of interest groups. The paper traces the use of experts in these Danish commissions for the period 1980 through 2017. What type of experts are used for what type of committee work? Are they present in particular policy fields or are they scattered over a number of fields. And may be most importantly: What is the role of experts in committees? To what extend do they play the role as true experts, bringing scientifically substantiated knowledge into the policy process. And to what extent are they there in order to legitimize decisions that are deeply political?