A Democracy Paradox in Studies of Science and Technology

Bibliographic Data

ID5337533
AuthorsEva Lövbrand (0000-0003-0968-0658, Linköping University, corresponding author), Roger Pielke, Roger A Pielke (0000-0002-9617-8764, Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA), Silke Beck (0000-0002-4157-0777, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research)
Year2011
Volume36
Issue4
Pages474-496
Publication date2011-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243910366154
OpenAlexW2106750201
LanguageEN
Citations received49
References cited49

Today many scholars seem to agree that citizens should be involved in expert deliberations on science and technology issues. This interest in public deliberation has gained attraction in many practical settings, especially in the European Union, and holds the promise of more legitimate governance of science and technology. In this article, the authors draw on the European Commission's (EC) report ''Taking the European Knowledge Society Seriously'' to ask how legitimate these efforts to ''democratize'' scientific expertise really are. While the report borrows from deliberative democrats' normative accounts of legitimacy, the authors identify a tension between the principles for legitimate rule prescribed by deliberative democratic theory and the report's celebration of diversity and dissent. While this inconsistency suggests that the legitimacy of deliberative governance arrangements is justified on empirical rather than normative grounds, it remains an open question whether studies of science and technology offer enough empirical support for such a justification. In this article, the authors address this pressing question and propose three possible responses

Corporate governance · Deliberation · Deliberative democracy · Democracy · Democratic legitimacy · Economics · Epistemology · European union · Law and economics · Legitimacy · Normative · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Sociology · Climate Change Communication and Perception · E-Government and Public Services · Law · Social Media and Politics