Experts in governance: a comparative analysis of the Nordic countries

The Nordic countries have traditionally been seen to share a distinct and successful governance model, combining high administrative capacity, extensive interest-group involvement and active channels for incorporating expert input in policy making. Starting in the 1980s, this model came under pressure. Yet, while changes to the statist and corporatist elements of this model are well documented, we know less about the changing role of expertise in Nordic governance. Focusing on one key institutional channel for incorporating expert knowledge in policy making, namely government-appointed advisory commissions, this article seeks to compare and account for changes in academic participation in Nordic commissions since the 1970s. Drawing on a cross-national data set covering more than 6,700 advisory commissions and 73,000 commission members, it finds significant cross-Nordic divergence in academic participation on advisory groups. The article offers a historical-institutionalist account for this divergence. It shows how the Nordic countries responded differently to similar political, economic and ideational pressures, leading their commission systems and the role of academic experts within these systems in different directions. In this way, the article makes an important contribution to scholarship on the politics of expertise and policy advice and debates about the Nordic governance model.