Does Science Need Democracy?

The validation of scientific theories cannot take place by means of democratic voting. Still, it is commonplace to assume that science would flourish more in democracies than in autocracies. In philosophy of science the main assumption has been that this is because democracies are “open societies” which safeguard civil and political liberties and cultivate pluralism. In this paper, we shed new light on the relationship between democracy and scientific activity and output, combining global data on over 57 million peer-reviewed articles with various measures of democracy, 1956-2020. Our study confirms that democracy is good for science. However, other features of democracy than those related to “openness” have a positive effect on research output too. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for our understanding of the relationship between democracy and science, and for some ongoing discussions within philosophy of science.