In class last Thursday my classmates and I had an interesting discussion on how our society is increasingly dependent on ‘expert’ knowledge. The society in which we live is increasingly more complex and thus we rely heavily on experts to navigate this complexness. When you read the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal many times the author will write something along the lines of “John Smith, an expert in (fill in the blank), says that…”. And so we wonder, how can citizens who are not ‘experts’ make decisions and participate in a democracy that some claim are dominated by ‘experts’?
Many people, myself included, criticize citizens of the United States for not actively participating in our democracy, the type of government that this country has worked to promote, spread and defend since it came to being. When I think about it, we really do live in a society dominated by special expertise in many specialized fields. On a daily basis I rely on ‘experts’ to tell me what is going on around the world. I rely on ‘experts’ to tell me how to solve my health problems. I rely on ‘expert’ knowledge in the classroom to inform me on topics that I have no clue about. Some would argue that the ‘experts’ are slowly taking over the American democracy and that this is keeping many ‘non expert’ citizens from participating.
The questions facing the public are becoming more and more complex. If we all rely so heavily on ‘experts’ how can one expect ‘non expert’ citizens to answer these questions on their own? How can we expect ‘non expert’ citizens to fully participate in this kind of democracy?
I have never really examined this issue in this light. I was always ready to criticize thinking that many Americans just didn’t bother to participate in our governmental system. Now I am thinking about this in a whole new way. Understanding why some Americans might not participate in democracy or feel they can’t participate.
It leads me to wonder about a few things. What is an ‘expert’, what is the role of the ‘expert’ in our society and what should it be?