Pielke Flashcards
Describe what Pielkes four roles are
(4)
- They are Ideal roles - not black and white
- Experts can only act as one at the same time.
- Scientists have to choose which role to play
- All are necessary in a functioning democracy
Describe the Pure Scientist
(7)
- Has no interext in the decision-making process - do not compel to seek a particular outcome
- What the policy-maker does with the information is their responsibility
- Not concerned with a specific decision
- Serve as an information resource
- Focus on research with no consideration for its use or utility
- Effective only in those cases where there is a broad agreement on values (otherwise it is likely to foster the politicization of science), and uncertainty is reducible or characterized
- Difficult in reality
Describe the Issue Advocate
(3)
- Tells the decision-maker what they ought to prefer - seeks to compel (make the case for) one alternative over other
- Explicit engagement of decision alternatives
- Focus on implications of research for a particular research agenda
Describe the Science Arbiter
(6)
- Serves as a resource for the decision-maker
- Ready to answer factual questions that the decision-maker thinks are relevant
- Does not tell the decision-maker what they ought to prefer, do not seek to compel a particular outcome
- Not concerned with a specific decision
- Effective only in those cases where there is a broad agreement on values - otherwise it is likely to foster the politicization of science - and uncertainty is reducible or characterized
- Can be difficult in reality
Describe the Honest Broker of Policy Alternatives
(5)
- Provides decision-maker with basic information about all alternatives
- Effort to expand, or at least clarify, the scope of choice
- The decision-maker is the one to reduce the choice based on their own preference/values - seeks to enable their freedom of choice
- Explicit engagement of decision alternatives
- Best achieved through a collection of experts
Describe the Stealth Issue Advocate
(5)
- An Issue Advocate pretending to be a pure scientist or science arbiter
- Scientists risk serving as it when they claim to focus only on the science
- Can be a conscious choice, or an unconscious
- Can be avoided by openly associate science with possible courses of action - serve as an Honest Broker
- Typical strategy is to reframe abortion politics issue as tornado politics
Describe the Madisonian view of democracy and his view of experts
(2)
Interest group pluralism
- Competing factions engage in political debate –> resulting compromise reflects the best possible balancing of their conflicting demands
- Experts would best serve society by aligning themselves with their favoured faction - offering their special expertise as an asset in political battle
Describe Schattschneider’s view of democracy and his view of experts
(5)
- Democracy is a competitive system
- The public is allowed to participate by voicing its views on alternatives presented to them in the political process
- Policy alternatives come from experts
- Role of experts to clarify the implications of their knowledge for action
- Decision-makers decide among the different possible courses of action presented by experts
Describe the linear model
(4) (Pielke)
(and what it emphasises and is used for)
- Flow of knowledge from basic research, to applied research, to development, to societal benefits
- Societal benefits are to be found downstream from the reservoir of knowledge
- Emphasises the importance of basic research and freedom for scientists
- Used to suggest that achieving agreement on scientific knowledge is a prerequisite for political consensus to be reached and then policy action to occur
Describe the Stakeholder model
(2)
- Users of science should have some role in its production
- Considerations of how science is used in decision-making are an important aspect of understanding the effectiveness of science in decision-making
Match the view of democracy and view of science with Pielkes four roles
Argue for why
- Linear + Madison = Pure
- Stakeholder + Madison = Issue
- Linear + Schattschneider = Arbiter
- Stakeholder + Schattschneider = Honest Broker
Pure = Removed from policy/politics, knowledge places into reservoir where available to all decision-makers
Issue = Aligns with a faction, science engaged with decision-makers
Arbiter = Removed from explicit policy/politics, but has direct interactions with decision-makers
Hones Broker = Engage in decision-making, integrate scientific knowledge with stakeholder concerns
What is uncertainty?
(4) (Pielke)
- In a particular situation, more than one outcome is consistent with our understandings - need for decisions
- Our understandings of uncertainty are often themselves uncertain
- Can be reduced through new knowledge
- The greater the uncertainty, the more important it is for science to focus on policy options rather than simply scientific results
Describe Tornado Politics
(6)
Which role is useful?
- Participants share a common objective - high value consensus
- Low uncertainty
- The scope of choice is highly restricted
- Information plays a critical role
- Once everyone obtains a shared level of understanding a preferred course of action will become obvious and non-controversial
- Science Arbiter or Pure Scientist
Describe Abortion Politics
(6)
What is needed and which role is useful?
- Conflicting commitments based on differing values - high value conflict
- High uncertainty
- No amount of scientific information can reconcile the different values
- Different type of information from scientific information is needed
- Strong desire to frame it as tornado politics
- Issue advocacy or honest brokering
What is ignorance and how does it differ from risk?
Ignorance = We do not know. Can be reduced by time
Risk = We know the probability. Our understanding of the risk can be improved through knowledge
