In view of current crises, expert knowledge is in high demand. It is in demand whenever certain questions, not least political ones, need to be decided on a scientific basis. At the same time, expertise itself is in a state of crisis, as it is suspected of encouraging anti-democratic expertocracy and allowing itself to be politically appropriated. It is therefore high time to clarify what are false expectations and what are justified hopes when it comes to expertise.
About the person
Caspar Hirschi, born in 1975, is Professor of History at the University of St. Gallen. His research deals with the relationship between scientific expertise and democratic politics. He himself is both an expert on scientific policy advice in crises and a guest columnist for the NZZ am Sonntag. In 2018, he published “Skandalexperten, Expertenskandale. Zur Geschichte eines Gegenwartsproblems” [“Scandal experts, expert scandals. The history of a contemporary problem”], in which he anticipated the conflict situation in the coronavirus era.