Democracy in the Post-Truth Era

Abstract

We are facing a crisis of trust in expertise today. Fewer and fewer people trust experts, and more and more politicians openly ignore expert consensus. 'Democracy in the Post-Truth Era' asks what might happen to democracy if we reject the fundamental liberal assumption that people are capable of making informed choices. The book explores the potential impact on society if people, including politicians, never appreciate the relevance of expert opinions. What if people cannot choose between supporters and opponents of key issues such as the causes of climate change, effectiveness of vaccines and ways of combating economic and social crises? Applying social epistemology to these questions, the book considers whether democracy can be defended in the post-truth era. It also argues that in its present form, liberal-democratic theory is unable to meet the challenge of post-truth and populism. The book attempts to demonstrate that rejecting the assumption that laypeople are competent to make decisions necessitates a reshaping of liberal democratic theory. It shows that it is culture and an atmosphere of trust in expertise rather than rational deliberation that plays a key role in ending the era of post-truth and radical, axiomatic scepticism with regard to expert knowledge.