Trust and Distrust of Scientific Experts and the Challenges of the Democratization of Science

Abstract

Abstract The chapter analyses the challenges posed to the trust of scientists as experts by a secular development: the end of the “exceptionalism” of science as an institution. Certified knowledge as the basis of expert advice (expertise) has a legitimating function, alongside the popular vote, but because of its instrumental value in political decision-making is always in danger of being politicized. This is exacerbated by a general movement toward the “democratization” of expertise, the recourse to expertise and “counterexpertise.” The pressure on science to be accountable has triggered an orientation toward public attention and the media (medialization), which, in turn, has initiated widespread “science communication” activities. Not least, digitization has created new opportunities and pressures. We are witnessing a self-reinforcing dynamic of continued dependence on the knowledge produced and represented by experts, triggering growing skepticism of the experts and their knowledge.