What makes expertise effective? A comparative analysis of attributed influence in Polish and German parliaments

What makes expertise effective? Instead of looking separately at expert knowledge and influence literatures, we bring together these two approaches and explore the relevance and use of expertise in the course of parliamentary processes in Poland and Germany. Whereas there exists a lot of research concerning the types of actors (interest groups, experts), venues, and lobbying strategies, we take a look on other aspects, such as the type of expertise, the extent of its use, and the role of expertise in parliamentary processes. We complement our focus with analysis of the strategies applied to make expertise effective in the course of the law-making. We rely on over hundred in-depth semi-structure interviews with parliamentarians and experts involved in parliamentary decision-making which allows us to compare the perception of the two sides of expertise delivery process. We expect to find that the recipients and senders of expertise assess differently the type of expertise that politicians are interested in, the political objectives of it, and the extent to which expertise is used by politicians, and that this trend is similar in both countries. We also juxtapose the perceptions of expertise senders and expertise recipients from two countries with different institutional background: Poland (Central Europe) and Germany (Western Europe). We expect to find differences in terms of strategies applied and make a link (generate tentative hypotheses) between specific institutional settings and the perceived varying relevance and use of expertise in both countries.