The Politics of Science Advice

Controversies over issues such as genetically engineered food, foot-and-mouth disease and the failure of risk models in the global financial crisis have raised concerns about the quality of expert scientific advice. The legitimacy of experts, and of the political decision-makers and policy-makers whom they advise, essentially depends on the quality of the advice. But what does quality mean in this context, and how can it be achieved? This volume argues that the quality of scientific advice can be ensured by an appropriate institutional design of advisory organisations. Using examples from a wide range of international case studies, including think tanks, governmental research institutes, agencies and academies, the authors provide a systematic guide to the major problems and pitfalls encountered in scientific advice and the means by which organisations around the world have solved these problems.

Justus Lentsch is Department Head of the Doctoral Programme at the Heinrich Boll Foundation, a green think tank an international policy network. Peter Weingart is Director Emeritus of the Institute for Science Technology Studies (IWT), Professor Emeritus of Sociology (or Science) at Bielefeld University and visiting Professor at the Center for Research on Science and Technology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.