The expert touch : how expert involvement shapes citizens’ perceptions of legitimacy in democratic policymaking

Representative democracy has come under increasing pressure in recent years, leading to growing interest in alternative decision-making models. One such alternative is technocratization: the rising involvement of independent experts, which shifts decision-making power away from elected politicians to non-elected technical elites. While existing research has largely focused on maximalist forms of technocratization and public support for expert-led governance, less is known about minimalist variants, where experts complement, rather than replace elected officials. This study addresses that gap by proposing a framework for understanding how citizens evaluate expert involvement in these complementary forms of technocratization. I theorize that the inclusion of academic experts may enhance the perceived legitimacy of decision-making processes, particularly depending on the congruence of outcomes with citizens’ preferences and whether the policy issue is technical or ideological. To test these expectations, I develop a survey experiment to be conducted later this year in Flanders, in which respondents assess randomly assigned decision-making processes that vary in expert involvement, policy outcome, and issue type.