IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v394y1971i1p4-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Knowledge, Power, and Democratic Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Sanford A. Lakoff

Abstract

The union of knowledge and power, long urged by philosophers, is on the verge of full consummation, thanks to the advance of science and the indispensability of expert advice in the face of rapid technological change. Does this union spell the death of democracy? Should a sharp distinction be drawn between natural and social knowledge? Experience with natural scientists indicates that there is room for considerable disagreement when knowledge is translated into policy. Social knowledge, while admittedly less certain, is a vitally needed complement of natural knowledge. The best way of assuring that knowledge is not misused is still democracy—democracy suitably modified, however, to meet the needs of a post-industrial era.

Suggested Citation

  • Sanford A. Lakoff, 1971. "Knowledge, Power, and Democratic Theory," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 394(1), pages 4-12, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:394:y:1971:i:1:p:4-12
    DOI: 10.1177/000271627139400102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271627139400102
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/000271627139400102?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:394:y:1971:i:1:p:4-12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.