Epistemic Democracy – following the crowd’s knowledge

• Published in: Veftímaritið Stjórnmál og stjórnsýsla
• Main Author: Jón Ólafsson
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Icelandic
• Published: University of Iceland 2016
• Subjects: Þekkingarmiðað lýðræði; stjórnlagaráð; stjórnarskrá; Ísland; hrun; Political institutions and public administration (General); JF20-2112; Political science (General); JA1-92; Iceland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2016.12.2.15; https://doaj.org/article/fbb76057a5af42e4afe763adb10fd056

During the democratic awakening in Iceland during and after the financial crisis of 2008 it was evident that different groups based their demands for more or deeper democracy on different conceptions of democracy. Yet their demands had a common core: more democracy meant greater public influence on policy- and decision-making. Thus public discussion insisted on a conception of democracy according to which public consultation is a necessary part of democratic governance. This paper discusses different kinds of consultation depending on the particular demands in each case with particular emphasis on epistemic democracy. I argue that even though it can hardly be said that epistemic democracy is based on much empirical evidence yet, its approach is the most promising way to think about future democratic.