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Democracy, Public Policy, and Lay Assessments of Scientific Testimony1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2012

Elizabeth Anderson
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Abstract

Responsible public policy making in a technological society must rely on complex scientific reasoning. Given that ordinary citizens cannot directly assess such reasoning, does this call the democratic legitimacy of technical public policies in question? It does not, provided citizens can make reliable second-order assessments of the consensus of trustworthy scientific experts. I develop criteria for lay assessment of scientific testimony and demonstrate, in the case of claims about anthropogenic global warming, that applying such criteria is easy for anyone of ordinary education with access to the Web. However, surveys show a gap between the scientific consensus and public opinion on global warming in the U.S. I explore some causes of this gap and argue that democratic reforms of our culture of political discourse may be able to address it.

Type
Research Article
Information
Episteme , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , June 2011 , pp. 144 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

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