History and Past Activities
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History and Past Activities |
Karel Müller
University of Charles
Institute of Learning Foundation
12V UK, Legerova 63, 1200 Prague 2, Czech Republic
Phone and Fax: +420 2 5164 1249
e-mail: muellerk@sun.izv.cuni.cz
Expertocracy and Democracy:
Problems of public control of technology in new democracies
The aim of the contribution is to draw lessons from the recent experience of radical changes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and indicate how they are relevant for social sciences - and in particular for theorising about the social environment of S&T. The CEE countries under socialist regime can be labeled as "technologised" societies: they tended to mobilise S&T as productive and social forces, introduce scientific methods of management, promote S&T based education & training and legitimise political decisions by the scientific reasons. This mode of technologisation was, however, implemented on the account of the value - based and value creating institutions of market and pluralistic democracy. The absence of the communicative, orienting and motivating power of the market and democratic institutions had soon brought about observable negative impact on economic efficiency, growth of industrial resources and regulatory regime. They could follow extensive growth only but could not get re-oriented, re-structured to different trajectory and pattern of growth. Let us call it, therefore, a single technologisation.
The impact of the single technolgisation on the societies in the CEE countries has not affected the functional social sub-systems (of economy, technology, education, public administration etc.) only. It has affected also the institutional setting, its communicative, reflective networks and orientation pattern. Of course, these effects has become apparent, and could be well observed, after the economic and political systems have been de-etatitised and liberalised.
The empirical background of the paper will deal with the issue of de-and re-institutionalisation of industrial system, in particular S&T organisations, in the transitive situation of Czech Republic. The political liberalisation - which re-founded the legal framework of traditional autonomies - and economic reform have been the key factors of de-institutionalisation of S&T organisations. However, their incentives for re-institutionalisation have been so far insufficient. The mobilisation of cultural factors seems urgent. The analysis of the dispute about the evaluation of research organisations will indicate how the cultural background, and value orientations, of academic and industrial science have been shaped, how they get confronted and adapted as legitimisation strategies in public disputes and what role they can play in the perspective of institutional change. Further on, the emerging interfaces between the industrial, economic and political systems will be assessed and the problems of public control of technology in new democracies discussed.
The paper will suggest that two modes of technologisation by its relationship to public control can be identified: the simple one, where the democracy is substituted by the expertocracy, and a more complex one where the control of technology is carried by the interplay of basic modern institutions.
Sociology of Science and Technology NETwork - last update: April 2006