Abstract
What kind of professional experts dominate within the European Commission—lawyers, economists or others? Driven by the notion that the role of professional experts is shaped by organizational features, the article examines how different kinds of expertise are inscribed in the Commission’s recruitment system and organizational structure. The analysis shows that while economics may have overtaken law as the most common educational background in the Commission, neither the recruitment system nor the departmental structure appears to encourage the development of economic expertise. The proportion of staff hired through economics competitions has dropped markedly, and there are few specialized units for economic analysis in the organization. More generally, the Commission’s hiring policies and organizational hierarchy do not seem conducive to strong expert roles. The picture that emerges is that of an organization where expert knowledge is neither tied to a particular profession nor firmly rooted in the departmental structure.
Highlights
The top civil service in Britain is dominated by generalists educated at Oxford and Cambridge
While some bureaucracies are organized in ways that are conducive to strong expert roles, others are structured in ways that put professional expertise in the background
The analysis shows that while economics may have overtaken law as the most common educational background in the Commission, neither the recruitment system nor the departmental structure seems to encourage the development of economic expertise
Summary
The top civil service in Britain is dominated by generalists educated at Oxford and Cambridge. While some bureaucracies are organized in ways that are conducive to strong expert roles, others are structured in ways that put professional expertise in the background Based on this insight, the article seeks to explore the salience of different kinds of expertise in the European Commission by examining the organization of expertise. The type of organizational analysis employed here has clear limits, as it tells us more about the structures that may shape the use of professional expertise than about how this knowledge is used It may provide a useful method for comparing the organization of knowledge across different national and international bureaucracies, since it relies on data that in many cases are readily available.
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