About the book
Based on in-depth studies of the relationship between expertise and democracy in Europe, this book presents a new approach to how the un-elected can be made safe for democracy. It addresses the challenge of reconciling modern governments’ need for knowledge with the demand for democratic legitimacy.
Knowledge-based decision-making is indispensable to modern democracies. This book establishes a public reason model of legitimacy and clarifies the conditions under which unelected bodies can be deemed legitimate as they are called upon to handle pandemics, financial crises, climate change and migration flows. Expert bodies are seeking neither re-election nor popularity, they can speak truth to power as well as to the citizenry at large. They are unelected, yet they wield power. How could they possibly be legitimate?
Contents
1. Introduction: making the unelected safe for democracy
Erik O. Eriksen
2. Strategies for repairing legitimacy deficits
Erik O. Eriksen
3. Reasoned administration: the European Union, the United States, and the project of democratic governance
Jerry L. Mashaw
4. Power, money, knowledge and the European Central Bank
Christopher Lord
5. Reputational threats and democratic responsiveness of regulatory agencies
Tobias Bach, Marlene Jugl, Dustin Köhler and Kai Wegrich
6. Accountability and inter-institutional respect: the case of independent regulatory agencies
Andreas Eriksen
7. Accountability beyond control: how can parliamentary hearings connect the elected and the unelected?
Andreas Eriksen and Alexander Katsaitis
8. Expertise and the general will in democratic republicanism
Kjartan Koch Mikalsen
9. Values in expert reasoning: a pragmatic approach
Torbjørn Gundersen
10. Experts: from technocrats to representatives
Erik O. Eriksen
Full info
Erik O. Eriksen
The Accountability of Expertise: Making the Un-Elected Safe for Democracy
Routledge, 2021 (forthcoming)
ISBN: 9781032007601