Science and politics have collaborated throughout human history and science is repeatedly
invoked today in political debates from pandemic management to climate change. Leading policy
analyst Geoff Mulgan here calls attention to the growing frictions caused by the expanding -
and unsolicited - authority being heaped upon science. As science increasingly competes with
politics a defined plan of cooperation is urgently needed. Mulgan outlines science and
politics as two distinct imperfect forms of collective intelligence. Whereas science is
ordered around what we know and what is politics engages what we feel and what matters.
Politics functions because it recognises the limits of power the need for delegation and
expert advice. The intellectual logic of science on the other hand focuses on detail and
depth struggling to place its knowledge in wider contexts. The crux of the matter Mulgan
argues is how can we ensure that crucial decisions taken in democracies are both well informed
and legitimate? Rooted in understanding that science and politics are not just fields of ideas
but also fields of action this book proposes ways to ensure that the two work effectively
together.
