Science Informed Policy and Democratic Autonomy

The utilization of scientific evidence for policy gives rise to the following dilemma: on the one hand, the utilization of scientific evidence for policy advances democratic autonomy by contributing to the realization of democratically chosen aims. On the other hand, using scientific evidence to inform policy can simultaneously undermine democratic autonomy, when there are ethical and political values in the scientific evidence that informs policy. When scientists make ethical and political value judgments as part of the scientific process or as part of the process of presenting their results and scientific evidence is then used to inform policy, scientists end up being the choosers of aims thereby usurping the democratic authority of citizens. The paper argues that the influential solutions to the problem of values in science fail to solve the democratic challenge posed here. Instead, I will put forward what I term The Adequate Options Principle as a solution to the problem of values in science-informed policy.