PATHWAYS TO INFORMATION PRIVACY POLICY: PLURALIST VS EXPERT?

This Article examines the dynamics of information privacy policymaking using the pathways framework developed by Timothy J. Conlan, Paul L. Posner, and David R. Beam in 2014. They identify four different pathways for policy-the pluralist, the partisan, the expert, and the symbolic. The Article is particularly interested in exploring why the expert pathway has not been employed in information privacy policymaking, and what conditions might enhance the likelihood of its use in this area. The Article proceeds as follows-first, a brief review of Conlan et al.'s framework and arguments; second, an application of their pathways framework to the development of privacy policy; third, an analysis of expertise in policymaking both generally and then with respect to information privacy policy; and fourth, an explication of why information privacy policymaking has been and is unlikely to take the expert pathway. Although the barriers to more expert input for information privacy policymaking are high, the analysis below identifies three factors which hinder expert input and three complementary changes which could enhance expert influence over information privacy policymaking.