知识与政治:公共决策中的专家政治与公众参与

Knowledge and Politics: Technocracy and Public Participation in Public Policy-making

公民参与公共决策是现代民主政治的重要体现。由于决策对知识信息的需求,专家学者的地位日益提高,并在特定政策领域中形成了专家政治现象。而普通公众的参与要么被忽视,要么流于形式。公众参与决策困境的核心在于科学知识与公众常识地位上的不对等,普通公众被认为缺乏理性参与决策的能力。事实上,科学哲学、知识社会学的研究表明科学知识具有内在的不确定性。地方性知识概念则为普通公众参与决策提供了认识论上的合理性支撑。为了应对"风险社会"下日益复杂的政策议题,公共管理者应借鉴"参与式知识管理"的观念,促成相关知识与诉求间的理解共识。

Citizen participation in public policy-making is an important manifestation of modern democratic politics. Because of the high demands of knowledge and information in policy-making, the status of experts and scholars has been increasing, and formed the technocracy phenomenon in specific policy areas. However, the participation of the general public was largely ignored or formalistic. The key point of public participation's dilemma is the conflict between scientific knowledge and common sense. The public is regarded as lacking of rational ability to participate in decision-making. In fact, studies of scientific philosophy and knowledge sociology show that scientific knowledge has inherent uncertainty. The concept of 'local knowledge' provides an epistemological reasonable support for public participation in public policy-making. In order to deal with complex issues in 'risk society', public managers should learn from the concept of 'participatory knowledge management' to facilitate the understanding and consensus between relevant knowledge and demands.