Modern politics is highly science-dependent and knowledge-driven. What is the rightful role of
expert knowledge in political life? How can the truth claims of science be reconciled with
principles of democratic control and lay participatory rights in decision-making? This
collection of essays by political scientists sociologists and economists from Germany France
and Norway provides different empirical and theoretical analyses of the complex organising and
legitimising power of knowledge in political governance. The authors shed light on key
dimensions and dilemmas that have shaped the world-changing interrelations between politics
social institutions and scientific knowledge in the past century. The contributions cover
issue-areas and policy-fields such as population control health economics ICTs and higher
education reform and the politics of productivity and economic pre-eminence.
