Roger Pielke Research Articles

Are Honest Brokers Good for Democracy?

ABSTRACT In Roger Pielke Jr.’s The Honest Broker (2007) he discusses different roles a scientist can adopt when giving advice to policymakers. The honest broker role focuses on clarifying and expanding the scope of choice for others. This role has the virtues of being sensitive to known problems with experts being partisan by stealth, dominating policy decisions by controlling knowledge input, and reducing the scope of considerations deemed relevant to decision-making. Yet I argue that to the extent the honest broker role involves expanding the scope of choice, an array of problems arises. These include ambiguity about which and whose consensus ought to guide scientists in their decisions about what role to adopt, an implicit tendency to insulate politics from science, and a possible replication of the anti-pluralism of political populism. Drawing upon Phillip Pettit’s critique of Isaiah Berlin’s account of freedom as non-interference, I argue that the honest broker role for scientists inherits the problems afflicting accounts of freedom as the non-restriction of options: namely, the problems of adaptive preference formation and ingratiation. On this basis I suggest not advising scientists to be honest brokers, because doing so might fail to help them be reflexive scientists.

Exploring the feasibility of future housing development within existing cities

In cities around the world, housing demand is increasing rapidly. Since housing supply is inelastic, house prices are rising as well, which causes affordability problems. Although there is consensus about the need to raise production, there is debate about its location: within the existing city, on underused or derelict buildings and sites, or on greenfield land outside existing city boundaries? The question we address is how researchers on the science–policy interface can support these debates and facilitate evidence-based decision-making. We address two major problems while doing this: (1) the complexity of the object at hand, that is, of the development of urban systems and (2) the politicised nature of science-for-policy. The contribution of this paper is that it links complexity theory to the literature about science-for-policy, two usually unconnected literatures. An additional contribution is that it shows how the role of the scientist as ‘honest broker’, as developed by Roger Pielke, can be operationalised and applied to existing policy debates. We do that for the Dutch debate about housing development in existing urban areas.

Public policy and indigenous language rights: Aotearoa New Zealand’s Māori Language Act 2016

ABSTRACTThis paper concerns itself with how policy is made in democratic nations in order to secure equal language rights. The case study assessed is Aotearoa New Zealand’s 2016 Māori Language Act and the process by which it passed into legislation. The paper draws on theories of public policy change, specifically the evidence-based policy approach, and examines the role of the language expert in light of Roger Pielke’s [(2007). The honest broker: Making sense of science in policy and politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511818110] archetypes, in particular, the issue advocate and the honest broker. Two independent review groups’ reports are analysed to understand whether their recommendations were acted upon. The analysis finds that there were similarities and differences in Te Paepae Motuhake and the Waitangi Tribunal’s recommendations, in particular. whether language planning should be top-down or bottom-up. The paper concludes that the different expert roles and ideologies of the two review groups were both important in developing Aotearoa New Zealand’s innovative dual-strategy Māori language policy. Such findings show that understanding how policy is made in democracies is important if language experts wish to turn argument and evidence into action to advance minority and particularly indigenous languages.

Gather data to reveal true extent of doping in sport.

Drug cheats will not be tackled properly until anti-doping agencies do more to assess the scale of the problem scientifically, says Roger Pielke Jr.

In Retrospect: The Social Function of Science

Roger Pielke Jr assesses the legacy of J. D. Bernal's science-policy classic on its 75th anniversary.

The climate fix: what scientists and politicians won't tell you about global warming

The world's response to climate change has been deeply flawed. The Climate Fix is where we begin to get it back on track, as science policy expert Roger Pielke, Jr. dissects the disastrous climate debate and offers a solution: expanding energy access and increasing energy security while lowering costs through technological innovation.

A Closer Look at Climate Change Skepticism

Debate over climate change is nothing new. Scientists have been arguing about whether greenhouse gases released by human activity might change the climate since the late nineteenth century, when Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius first proposed that industrial emissions might cause global warming.1 Fueled by partisan bickering, this dispute now is more bellicose than ever.

Climate change: Our emissions obsession

Daniel Greenberg scrutinizes Roger Pielke Jr's argument for a greater emphasis on adapting to climate change.

In Retrospect: Science — The Endless Frontier

Vannevar Bush's pivotal report that marked the beginning of modern science policy catapulted the phrase 'basic research' into popular usage, explains Roger Pielke Jr.

Tales from the climate-change crossroads

Four books by prominent global-warming pundits illustrate that exhortation and authority are not enough to solve the climate crisis — it is time for some humility, concludes Roger Pielke Jr.

Who has the ear of the president?

50 years after the appointment of the first presidential science adviser, the White House is flooded with scientific information. Roger Pielke Jr suggests how the next administration might develop ways to use it best. The first presidential science adviser was appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower 50 years ago this week. The anniversary has prompted reminiscences of a time when the science adviser was closer to the seat of power than at any time since. But in a Commentary, Roger Pielke Jr argues that there's no going back. The role has changed: the job of the science adviser under the next president will be to help his or her administration make the most of the vast infrastructure of expert advice that now exists in the United States.

Lifting the taboo on adaptation

Renewed attention to policies for adapting to climate change cannot come too soon for Roger Pielke, Jr, Gwyn Prins, Steve Rayner and Daniel Sarewitz. The first volume of Climate Change 2007, the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), was published on 2 February. In a Special Report Nature's news team sums up the document's main conclusions and assesses initial reactions to it. Two related Commentaries look at some practical steps being taken in response to climate change.