The crisis of democracy and science

DIt is the prevailing thesis in democracy research that democracy is in crisis. The latest results from expert surveys from the “Varieties of Democracy” project seem to prove this. Data collected for the project from 27 EU countries and most importantly Western democracies show a nearly continuous increase in democratization since 1950. But only until around 2008. Since then, the quality of democracy has been steadily declining on average. In Germany too. Is that why democracy is already in crisis?

The fact that Wolfgang Merkel would rather speak of the erosion of democracy than the crisis does not take away any drama from its diagnosis. In her farewell lecture at the Berlin Science Center, which she is leaving after sixteen years of research, Merkel complains not only of the persistent loss of quality in our democratic institutions. He also links it to three new external crises challenging our democracy. According to Merkel, migration crises, pandemics and climate crises are a new type of crisis because they dangerously distort the relationship between science and politics. The important question is: can science (in the plural) formulate the (former) common good?

A strategic selection of scientific expertise

At least in Germany this side of party pluralism, social conflict and conflicting interests does not crave political authority, warned Merkel in a recently published essay. Is this longing now finding its fulfillment in the scientific form of a scientific government advisor? Unfortunately, governments always selected scientists whose position best suited their concept. In the end, however, a strategic selection of scientific expertise harms both political science and scientifically based politics. It only tries to hide the apparent selectivity of their justification by declaring the expert council to be the current form of the common good, which one should not refuse. Merkel did not name any specific addressees about her allegations. In all the combatants of the present crisis the seeming aim of politics can be found “Mahavidya”. Its consequences are fatal because we do not even know how to come out of the trap that democracy has fallen into.