Abstract
In the sociological tradition the relation between scientific expertise and policy has been described in terms of domination and determination. The theory of reflexive modernization, in contrast, focuses on the pluralism and multiparadigmatism of science, as it is caused by different interpretations of new risks. In a critical assessment of this approach we argue that it systematically underestimates the pacifying effects of institutionalized dissent in current society. The decision-making of the Deutsche Bundestag on the moral acceptance of stem cell research can serve as an example for the new role of expertise in political decision. The institutionalized dissent — for example in the form of National Ethics Councils — may be understood as a symbolic production of the political capacity to act which changes the political rationality while reproducing the traditional proceedings of decision-making.
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