Political Elites and Knowledge

This panel focuses on how political elites interact with and utilize knowledge in their daily activities. Knowledge is defined here in a very broad sense, as informational inputs that political elites use to assess their environment and develop strategies for political or policy action. Additionally, the term includes various types of knowledge, such as expert knowledge (with a scientific or technical origin) as well as citizen or lay knowledge (knowledge not institutionally certified).
Some examples of general questions that the papers in this panel (theoretical, case studies, or comparative studies) might address include: What role do political elites play in filtering and translating knowledge into the political or policy process? How do they use (different types of) knowledge in these processes? Which factors explain the type of use (instrumental, political, symbolic)? Are there differences in their relationship with knowledge among different types of political elites (e.g., parliamentary, executive, administrative, advisory)? Do they prioritize specific types of knowledge? What are the attitudes of political elites towards different types of knowledge? How can political elites contribute to reconciling democratic decision-making with the use of expert knowledge?