Representative democracy is put under pressure the last few years. To remedy this crisis, different alternatives are explored, including ‘stealth democracy’ which aims to transfer (more) decision-making power to non-partisan experts. Although some support for this kind of democracy can be found among citizens, it is also contested, as became apparent during the Covid-crisis.

Research on ‘stealth democracy’ is less developed than e.g. research on citizen participation. Studies on this topic have mainly approached the role of experts in policy-making in a very general way. By studying one specific type of experts (academic experts), and by distinguishing between three specific channels of influence that experts use (government, parliament and media), we shift the focus to more concrete features of expert involvement, which will lead to more in-depth insights in this phenomenon. Moreover, we move beyond the narrow focus of current research on citizens’ attitudes towards expert involvement, both by investigating attitudes of other stakeholders such as politicians and experts, and by studying other aspects than attitudes, namely the actual use and the effects of expert advice.

The project can be divided in three clear parts. First, the actual use of expert involvement will be analysed through observational data. Second, the effect of expert advice will be studied by means of process tracing. Third, this study will research the attitudes of three stakeholders (citizens, politicians, and experts) towards expert involvement in a vignette experiment.