The Advisory Roles of Political Scientists in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Political scientists in Europe are more extrovert in their behaviour as academics than is sometimes thought. They live outside the ‘ivory tower’ for part of their time and deliver knowledge and information to practitioners in the policy process. The majority takes a role as opinionating scholar; this happens more often than being an expert or a pure academic. Despite variation between countries, individual characteristics of respondents make a large difference to the extent and nature of engagement. Age, gender and type of employment contract have a strong predictive effect. Age and status of employment relate to the professional life cycle: more experienced scholars with a permanent academic position are more active in advising than their younger colleagues at the department of political science. These factors interact with gender, but the relevance of gender for advisory engagement is also strongly socially constructed. Female political scientists abstain more often, and when engaging they take an expert role, staying closer to evidence with less outreach to the public environment. This apparent gender gap occurs widely across all spheres of professional affiliation, and it requires more systematic attention within the academic political science community.