Universities as Knowledge Institutions: A Reply to Professor Jackson

Abstract

I am grateful for Professor Vicki Jackson’s engagement with my scholarly work, and I want to take this opportunity to react to some of hers in one of the areas in which our concerns overlap. As Professor Jackson describes, in recent years she has been working on the important topic of what she calls “knowledge institutions in constitutional democracy.” This focus is appropriate as it addresses a very central source of the current malaise plaguing many constitutional democracies around the world. The crisis of democracy in the 21st century is not only one of economic inequality, institutions, or political polarization: it is also epistemic.