Democratic Epistemology and Accountability

Bibliographic Data

ID23160054
AuthorsRussell Hardin (New York University, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume17
Issue1
Pages110-126
Publication date2000-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Philosophy and Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0265-0525 • E-ISSN: 1471-6437
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0265052500002557
OpenAlexW2103488643
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited16

Most of the knowledge of an ordinary person has a very messy structure and cannot meet standard epistemological criteria for its justification. Rather, a street-level epistemology makes sense of ordinary knowledge. Street-level epistemology is a subjective account of knowledge, not a public account. It is not about what counts as knowledge in, say, physics, but deals rather, with your knowledge, my knowledge, the ordinary person's knowledge. I wish not to elaborate this view here, but to apply it to the problems of representative democracy. I will briefly lay out the central implications of a street-level epistemology and then bring it to bear on democratic citizenship, especially on the problem of the citizen's holding elected officials accountable for their actions.

Accountability · Citizenship · Democracy · Epistemology · Epistemology of Wikipedia · Political science · Politics · Social epistemology · Sociology · Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Religious Education and Schools

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