Micro-institutions and Liberal Democracy

Public Service and Liberal Democracy

The debate on television’s "public service"obligations can only make full sense if integrated in the broader context of the debate on the best political model for society. In fact, the classic "public service"rationale is based in a normative conception of good and in a suspicious view of the average citizen that is largely tributary of a Platonic or Elitist approach to the political organizati...

Subjective Measures of Liberal Democracy

Using democracy in empirical work requires accurate measurement. Yet, most policy and academic research presupposes the accuracy of available measures. This article explores judgespecific measurement errors in cross-national indicators of liberal democracy. The authors evaluate the magnitude of these errors in widely used measures of democracy and determine whether their results replicate durin...

Electoral Institutions and Satisfaction With Democracy

Science in democracy: Expertise, institutions and representation

After the ‘Science Wars’ of the 1990s and the ‘Republican War on Science’ of the 2000s in the United States, the fraught relationship between science and politics continues to make headlines. In conflicts over issues ranging from global warming to stem cell research, complaints about ‘politicized science’ remain familiar refrains. However, such complaints presuppose a rigid boundary that has be...

Science in Democracy: Expertise, Institutions, and Representation

What is science’s proper role in democracy? A half-century ago the answer seemed plain: to “speak truth to power.” Science and politics existed in separate spheres of facts and values. Science took its remit directly from nature and needed to pay no dues to politics. Politics, for its part, had to take facts on board in order to make sound decisions for the good of the people. Politicians did n...