Democracy and scientific expertise: illusions of political and epistemic inclusion

Realizing the ideal of democracy requires political inclusion for citizens. A legitimate democracy must give citizens the opportunity to express their attitudes about the relative attractions of different policies, and access to political mechanisms through which they can be counted and heard. The most influential expression of these objectives derives from the political philosophy underlying democratic theory. Robert Dahl, the celebrated political scientist, describes political inclusion as a guiding principle of democratic decision-making: "When binding decisions are made, the claims of each citizen as to the desirability of the policies to be adopted must be counted as valid and equally valid." 2 Put another way: "Throughout the process of making binding decisions, citizens ought to have an adequate opportunity, and an equal opportunity, for expressing their preferences as to the final outcome." 3 Of course, gross inequalities exist in all democracies, and this often foments unrest. To quiet turmoil over inequalities, Dahl points out, it may be enough to simply make people " feel " heard: "When demands for greater equality do arise, a regime may gain allegiance among the deprived groups by responding to some part of the demands, though not necessarily all of them, or by responses that do not reduce the objective inequalities but do reduce feelings of relative deprivation." 4 However insufficient procedural rules may be in securing substantive justice, people can rationally support procedural standards for purely instrumental reasons. A procedure that regularly fails to produce a fair outcome may nevertheless be worth supporting because it is better than other options. 2 As Dahl puts the point: "Although that process cannot guarantee that all the members will literally live under laws of their own choosing, it expands self-determination to its maximum feasible limits. Even when you are among the outvoted members whose preferred option is rejected by the majority of your fellow citizens, you may nonetheless decide that the process is fairer than any other that you can reasonably hope to achieve. To that extent you are exercising your freedom of self-determination by freely choosing to live under a democratic constitution rather than a nondemocratic alternative." 5 A key part of political inclusion is epistemic inclusion, which is the provision that individuals should have access to knowledge and the effective opportunity for that knowledge to influence both their political decision making and political outcomes. Democratic constitutions carefully craft procedures that allow citizens to express their …