Democracy in the Post-Truth Era: Restoring Faith in Expertise

208 Pages·2023·1.265 MB·English

by  Janusz Grygienc

DEMOCRACY IN THE POST-TRUTH ERA
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DEMOCRACY IN THE
POST-TRUTH ERA
Restoring Faith in Expertise
Janusz Grygien´c´
Translated by Dominika Gajewska
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Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university
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in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social
sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high
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© Janusz Grygieńć, 2023
Cover image: The Parable of the Blind: The blind leading the
blind, Sebastiaen Vrancx (1573–1647). Image courtesy of
Wikimedia Commons
Cover design: www.richardbudddesign.co.uk
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The right of Janusz Grygieńć to be identified as the author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related
Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
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CONTENTS
List of Tables vi
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: Post-Truth and the Dawn of Illiberal Democracy 1
1 Expertise in Liberal Political Theory: Problems and
Discrepancies 21
2 Expertise: Promises, Perils and Limitations 47
3 Laymen, Experts and Epistemic Dependence 74
4 Epistemic Dependence and Political Theory:
Dependence Changes Everything 105
5 Inclusive Epistocracy, Competence and Popular Rule 129
Epilogue: Living in a World of Too High Expectations 156
Bibliography 167
Index 191
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TABLES
3.1 Cognitive islands: hard, medium and soft version 95
3.2 Epistemic communities and novice/2-experts problem 98
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is the outcome of many years of research. Therefore, it is
impossible to mention all the people who have had an impact on its
creation. I will therefore focus on the most important individuals.
First of all, I am very grateful to the authorities of the Institute
of Philosophy and the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences
of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń for giving me six
months sabbatical leave to complete work on this book. I am incred-
ibly grateful to Zbyszek Nerczuk whose support and patience were
invaluable.
Over the years I presented parts of this book at many conferences,
including in Krakow, Poznan, Paris, Nancy, Cardiff, and during the face-
to-face ECPR in 2019 and the online ECPR in 2020. I want to thank all
the contributors to the discussions on my papers (and there were many).
Their comments repeatedly forced me to rethink critical parts of my nar-
rative. I especially thank Rikki Dean, who shared insightful comments
on the outline of this book with me.
I am incredibly grateful to the anonymous reviewers from Edinburgh
University Press. They have done a fantastic job. They accurately tracked
down and pointed out the weak links in my narrative. They encouraged
me to take a precise stand, especially in Chapters 3 and 5. This book
would have been much worse without their comments.
I also want to thank everyone at Edinburgh University Press for the
smooth running of the publishing process, their professionalism and the
friendly atmosphere of cooperation. In particular, I would like to thank
Ersev Ersoy for her constant help.
Finally, special thanks are due to my wife, Ewa. She was the first to
read the manuscript and to point out its weaknesses and strengths. Writ-
ing this book did not come easily to me. I have never been so immersed
in academic work. Without Ewa’s help, I would not have been able to
complete the task. In fact, I could not have done much else.
vii
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viii DEMOCRACY IN THE POST-TRUTH ERA
The contribution of all the above people to all that is inspiring and
interesting in this book was decisive. I take sole responsibility for the
average, weak and mediocre aspects of my work.
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INTRODUCTION: POST-TRUTH AND THE DAWN OF
ILLIBERAL DEMOCRACY
EXPERTISE IN CRISIS
Scientists and journalists have increasingly been calling our attention to
an alarming drop in our faith in the authority of expertise.1 Although
doubt in the good intentions and competence of experts has been on the
rise since the 1970s, it seems to have reached unprecedented proportions
lately. A whole host of factors are to blame for this, including spec-
tacular expert gaffes, as seen in the failure to predict political and eco-
nomic crises, to understand their nature and repercussions, and to come
to agreement on most of the problems discussed in the public realm.
On the other hand, the increasing privatisation of scientific research has
bolstered the view that experts who are financially dependent on private
sponsorship are simply biased. The social dynamics of this crisis have
been brought into stark relief by the COVID-19 pandemic. The world-
wide health crisis has shown just how much both citizens and politi-
cians are dependent on expertise. Expert opinions on how the pandemic
would develop and how to combat it were suddenly in huge demand. It is
true that on many occasions politicians made instrumental use of expert
authority to justify the measures they were taking in order to avoid polit-
ical responsibility for the consequences of their actions.2 However, it is
now the norm for politicians to comply with the recommendations of
scientific advisory bodies. The pandemic has also mercilessly laid bare
the flaws of scientific communication. The lability and multiplicity of
expert opinions; the evolution of hypotheses and forecasts; contradic-
tory positions with regard to the existence, thresholds and possibility
of achieving herd immunity; changing recommendations regarding the
effectiveness of protective measures, including masks and face shields –
all of these combined to create a chaotic communication environment
1
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2 DEMOCRACY IN THE POST-TRUTH ERA
that citizens found hard to navigate.3 New reports on the side- effects of
the AstraZeneca vaccine generated alternating waves of readiness and
unwillingness to get vaccinated. The pandemic also revealed how popu-
list politicians were ready to flout expertise and the sorry consequences
that this eventually produced.
The COVID-19 crisis exposed an entire macrocosm of inflammatory
points at the intersection of expertise, political power and public opin-
ion. It highlighted the fact that expert institutions and pharmaceutical
companies may pressure political authorities by dictating vaccine prices
and delivery dates. It witnessed the debacle of state-funded research
institutions in competition with private companies that were able to pat-
ent successive vaccines. It unmasked the role of expert-staffed regulatory
agencies such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) which authori-
tatively decided if vaccines were safe or whether the risks associated with
the occurrence of vaccine adverse reactions were admissible.
The pandemic also exposed public fears, concerns and disbelief
regarding the scope and consequences of the crisis. In just one year we
saw ample evidence of the huge role experts play in our lives and of the
public’s alarmingly low trust in their competence and good intentions.
On the one hand, studies such as 3M 2020 Pandemic Pulse have shown
that the pandemic increased people’s trust in science.4 Some scholars
claim that trust in science was in much better shape than generally
assumed prior to the pandemic. Aside from a few exceptions, such as
climate change or vaccines, trust in science had been steadily growing.5
However, some sources point to the opposite phenomenon.6 A survey
commissioned by the European Council on Foreign Relations (EFCR)
in nine European Union countries with two-thirds of the EU’s popula-
tion shows that despite the pandemic 65 per cent of respondents do not
trust the experts, blaming them for deliberate concealment of important
information. Of my own compatriots, 20 per cent trust experts, while
only 15 per cent of French people trust them.7 This decline in confidence
seems to be deepening. It is uncertain if the COVID-19 pandemic will
alter this picture in any way. At least not for the better.
POST-TRUTH AND ILLIBERAL DEMOCRACY
The crisis of confidence in expertise coincides and resonates with the
phenomenon of post-truth. When writing about this phenomenon in
2004, Ralph Keyes used the term ‘post-truth’ to refer to an increasing
acceptance of and acquiescence to lies in the public sphere. According to
Keyes, we lie more often and with less compunction.8 We also increas-
ingly get away with it. The years 2015–16 and the victories of illiberal
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