Citizens and Experts in Policymaking

3 credits · Undergraduate

Every modern democracy makes a bet that is never fully resolved: that citizens are competent to govern themselves. Yet, the actual work of government - regulating drugs, managing the air traffic, and responding to pandemics - requires specialized expertise most citizens do not have. This seminar examines the resulting tension between rule by the people and rule by the experts. Drawing together democratic theory, the historical development of American institutions, and the emerging field of civic studies, we ask who should decide, on what basis their authority rests, and how the competing claims of democratic legitimacy and expert competence might be reconciled. We move from the classic theoretical poles - guardianship and epistocracy on one side, popular sovereignty on the other - through the historical construction of the administrative state, to contemporary experiments in participation, co-production, and the current backlash against experts.