Liberal Democracy 3.0

'This is a very fine text, a powerful piece of work that deserves to be read widely. The analysis is truly panoramic. It ranges across central concerns in the fields of social theory, political theory, and science studies and engages with and/or draws upon the ideas of key classical and contemporary thinkers, including Tocqueville, Weber, Schumpeter, Polyani, Habermas, Foucault, Schmitt and Beck' - Barry Smart, Professor of Sociology, University of Portsmouth What are the political implications of 'expert' knowledge and especially scientific knowledge for liberal democracy? If knowledge is not evenly distributed upon what basis can the philosophy of equal rights be sustained? This important book points to the crisis in knowledge in liberal democracies. This crisis, simply put, is that most citizens cannot understand, much less judge, the claims scientists make. One response is the appointment of public commissions to provide conclusions for policy-makers to act upon. There are also 'commissions from below', such as grass roots associations that quiz the limits of expert knowledge and power and make rival knowledge claims.Do these commissions represent a new stage in the development of liberal democracy? Or is it merely a pragmatic device of no political consequence. The central argument of the book is that in a 'knowledge society' in which specialized knowledge is increasingly important to politics, more has to be delegated because democratic discussion can't handle it. This limitation in the scope of liberal democracy threatens its fundamental character. The book will be required reading in the fields of social theory, political theory and science studies.

ISBN 0761954694   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780761954699 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 308 Publisher SAGE Publications Ltd   Published in London Imprint SAGE Publications Ltd   Series editor Featherstone, Mike, Featherstone, Mike, Featherstone, Mike (University of Teeside) Format Paperback   Series title Published in Association with Theory, Culture & Society Publication date 18 Mar 2003   Height (mm) 234 Library of Congress 02115622   Width (mm) 156 DEWEY 306.42   Spine width (mm) 13 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level Tertiary education, Professional / Scholarly Pages 168

		Foreword
1		Introduction: Thinking Politically about Experts		1
2		The Last Inequality		18
3		Is Rational Discourse With Experts Possible?		46
4		Filling the Gap: The Rise of Knowledge Associations and 'Expertization'		71
5		Three Eras of Liberalism		97
6		The Withering Away of Civil Society?		129
		References		144
		Index		151

'This is a very fine text, a powerful piece of work that deserves to be read widely. The analysis is truly panoramic. It ranges across central concerns in the fields of social theory, political theory, and science studies and engages with and/or draws upon the ideas of key classical and contemporary thinkers, including Tocqueville, Weber, Schumpeter, Polyani, Habermas, Foucault, Schmitt and Beck' - Barry Smart, Professor of Sociology, University of Portsmouth

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