Page 130 - Democracy and the Public Sphere

Unfinished Projects: Reflexive Democracy 125

of making institutions vulnerable whenever they fail to front up
over contentious issues, by withholding information, misleading,
or refusing to answer questions. Citizens, when suitably motivated,
are increasingly proficient at prising open institutions and breaching

the official boundaries between frontstage and backstage. We live,
Giddens touchingly reminds us, in a ‘world of clever people’! 9
But the rising stock of ‘expert’ knowledge that ‘lay’ citizens are
capable of acquiring through education, the Internet and self-
help literature, say, is only part of the equation. For example,
institutionalised scepticism and professional competition routinely
lead to open confl icts ensuing between and within expert systems: large
industries and professions are rarely monolithic forces that speak
with a single voice. Intractable arguments frequently go on in public
over how to interpret a statistical ‘fact’ (economic ‘data’ is especially
adept at generating more questions than answers). The media often
make it their business to try to tear away the veils of autonomy

worn by scientific or political institutions (and often rival media
institutions) by exposing their links with special-interest groups and
corporations. And crucially, there is growing public attention given
to ‘manufactured’ hazards: powerful techno-scientifi c institutions
are ‘always already’ implicated in a web of problems and remedies
– though perhaps not subject to the same levels of public cynicism as
most political institutions, they are also largely unable to command
unconditional trust and must invest heavily in ongoing proactive
and reactive public relations. All of this systemic entropy may have
little to do with increased transparency. It may ultimately succeed
in generating greater uncertainty and confusion among lay citizens

(‘the more we find out, the less we know’). But it also undermines the
traditional aura of expertise and unquestioned faith to which expert
institutions may have once aspired: citizens are increasingly moved
to get their hands dirty and to dig for answers themselves, even
where they remain dependent on expert systems in the last analysis.
Consider, for example, the medical patient who turns to the Internet

in frustration at her doctor’s inability to make a firm diagnosis. Her
reflexive agency does not reduce her ultimate dependency on the

medical profession. Having found some relevant information on
the Internet, which itself has been provided by medical experts, she
will then have to persuade the relevant specialists to re-evaluate
her case in the light of that information. In the event that she
overcomes that hurdle, she will then depend on expert professionals
to provide her with the appropriate treatment. In this scenario, in

23/8/05 09:36:13
Goode 02 chap04 125
Goode 02 chap04 125 23/8/05 09:36:13