Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Democracy in the age of assessment: Reflections on the roles of expertise and democracy in public-sector decision making

Democracy in the age of assessment: Reflections on the roles of expertise and democracy in... In recent decades, governments have increasingly employed expert assessments and formal decision-making technologies. While these promise objectivity and transparency, they are just as likely to buffer decisions from public scrutiny. Countries such as Britain and the United States have experienced a sharp decline in electoral participation. Social scientists have responded with participatory techniques to resituate the non-expert citizen at the heart of decision making. This paper explores three specific problems with such methods: evaluation; representation; and agenda setting. It concludes that participatory techniques may have significant potential to inform and supplement representative democracy. However, under current arrangements, it is impossible for them to escape political-cultural constraints that reduce complex moral and aesthetic issues to scientific framings. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Science and Public Policy Oxford University Press

Democracy in the age of assessment: Reflections on the roles of expertise and democracy in public-sector decision making

Rayner, Steve
Science and Public Policy , Volume 30 (3) – Jun 1, 2003
Download PDF
8 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/oxford-university-press/democracy-in-the-age-of-assessment-reflections-on-the-roles-of-gFmxhnSoDA

References (0)

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© Published by Oxford University Press.
Subject
Democracy
ISSN
0302-3427
eISSN
1471-5430
DOI
10.3152/147154303781780533
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In recent decades, governments have increasingly employed expert assessments and formal decision-making technologies. While these promise objectivity and transparency, they are just as likely to buffer decisions from public scrutiny. Countries such as Britain and the United States have experienced a sharp decline in electoral participation. Social scientists have responded with participatory techniques to resituate the non-expert citizen at the heart of decision making. This paper explores three specific problems with such methods: evaluation; representation; and agenda setting. It concludes that participatory techniques may have significant potential to inform and supplement representative democracy. However, under current arrangements, it is impossible for them to escape political-cultural constraints that reduce complex moral and aesthetic issues to scientific framings.

Journal

Science and Public Policy – Oxford University Press

Published: Jun 1, 2003

There are no references for this article.