Thèse en préparation
Ming WANG, "Research on Contemporary Western Epistemic Democracy Theory", thèse de science politique en préparation à l’Université Paris 8, sous la direction d’Yves Sintomer et de Wang Jiafeng (Université normale de Nanjing).
Abstract :
Does political decision-making need to rely on the judgment of experts or listen to the opinions of the people ? This question is very important for democracy. Different answers will determine whether democratic politics has legitimacy. One view is that in terms of the complexity of political decision-making, the judgment of experts is obviously better than that of the public, because experts often have higher epistemic ability. This view has a long historical tradition in political philosophy, which can be traced back to Plato’s Republic at least. Since the judgment of experts is better than the opinions of the people, experts should be given more decision-making power in political life, and the participation of ordinary people is not worth advocating. This view is very unfavorable to democratic politics. Critics of democracy often cite this view and believe that democracy cannot be trusted because its decision-making quality is worrying.
This undoubtedly poses a serious challenge to contemporary democracy advocates. To continue to support democratic politics, contemporary democratic theorists must meet this challenge and analyze and defend democracy based on its epistemic ability. This effort makes a so-called epistemic turn in the research of contemporary democratic theory, so the research of epistemic democracy has become an attractive research field. This article systematically sorts out the context and main research paths of contemporary epistemic democracy research, summarizes the main viewpoints and controversies in epistemic democracy research, and analyzes the current difficulties in epistemic democracy research and possible future development directions, in order to look forward to providing a theoretical map of Western epistemic democracy research for the Chinese literature community.
Since Cohen published “Epistemic Concept of Democracy” in 1986, epistemic democrats have developed a set of arguments, the core of which is to link democracy with collective wisdom, so as to provide an important defense for the epistemic ability of democratic politics : democratic politics can become an excellent political system because it is a smart collective decision-making procedure. Compared with other political arrangements, democratic politics is more likely to discover, tap and mobilize collective wisdom. It is worth noting that this defense is not only limited to the level of institutionalism, but also goes deep into the level of epistemology. Because epistemic democracy theory not only focuses on the decision-making process of democratic politics and believes that this process has more potential to produce knowledge, but also points to the evaluation of decision-making results. By combining the process of consultation and aggregation, epistemic democracy further shifts their focus to a result-oriented consideration, that is, how democratic procedures help democratic decision-making approach the correctness standard of procedural independence.
To sum up, there are two main lines for epistemic democrats to solve problems and discuss views : One is to defend the normative concept of democratic authority, that is, to establish the epistemic dimension of democratic authority ; The second is to seriously consider the problem of epistemic ability, that is, to prove that democracy has epistemic attributes. Future research may need to combine the above two paths to prove the empirical reliability and normative legitimacy of democratic results. In other words, epistemic democrats want reliable procedures, and citizens have reason to expect reliability, and finally prove that democracy has authority.
Research method :
Literature research, Historical comparisons, Interviews
Publications
Articles dans des revues scientifiques
- 2020 “Reconstruction Path of Rural Aged Care Service Supply Mode Based on Rooted Theory”, Regional Governance, No.280, 2020, pp. 46-48.
- 2018 “Strategic mutual trust is the key to building a new-type relationship between China and the United States”, East Asian Issues Studies, No.1, 2018, pp. 43-50.
- 2018 “A Brief Analysis of Huntington’s Reform Theory”, Journal of Western Yunnan University, No.2, 2018, pp. 26-30.
- 2017 “Path Analysis of Optimizing Community Home-based Care for the Aged”, Consume Guide, No.13, 2017, pp. 20-21. Co-authored with Nan Zhang.
- 2016 “Research on the Reconstruction of the Current Rural Old-age Service Supply Mode”, Inner Mongolia Science and Technology Magazine, No.9, 2016, pp. 215-217. Co-authored with Xiaodi Xu.
- 2016 “Looking at China’s reform with Huntington’s reform theory-some thoughts after reading Political Order in Changing Society ”, East Asian Issues Studies, No.2, 2016, pp. 64-70.
- 2022 “Analyzing the Reasons for the Failure of the Opium War Based on the Theory of Knowledge Politics, Journal of Luliang Education College, No.3, 2022.
Expériences de la recherche
- 2020 : “The battle of numbers" and "the decision of numbers” : the application and improvement path of big data in community epidemic prevention and control-based on summer social practice research in Qixia District, Nanjing, and won the second prize of the excellent research report of 2020 summer social practice activities of college students in Nanjing Normal University
- 2017 : Participated in the 15th "Challenge Cup" National College Students’ Extracurricular Academic Science and Technology Works Competition. The title of the work "Research on the Reconstruction of Current Rural Old-age Service Supply Mode" won the third prize in Jiangsu Province.
- 2016 : Served as the moderator of the provincial general project research group. Project title : Research on the cooperative supply mechanism of aged care services in Qixia District, Nanjing (Project No. 201513906014Y), and successfully concluded the project.
Bourses et distinctions
- 2020 : Second Prize of Dream Practitioner Design Competition, School of Public Administration, Nanjing Normal University
- 2020 : Second Prize of Excellent Research Report on College Students’ Summer Social Practice, Nanjing Normal University
- 2017 : Excellent Graduate, Zhongbei College of Nanjing Normal University
- 2017 : First Prize of Von Jour Scholarship, Nanjing Normal University
- 2016-2017 : Jiangsu Provincial Miyoshi Students, Jiangsu Education Department
- 2016-2017 : Miyoshi Student, Zhongbei College of Nanjing Normal University
- 2016-2017 : Outstanding Student Cadres, Zhongbei College of Nanjing Normal University
- 2015-2016 : Outstanding Communist Party Member, Committee of Nanjing Normal University of the Communist Party of China
- 2015-2016 : National Inspirational Scholarship, Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education
- 2015-2016 : Miyoshi Students, Nanjing Normal University
- 2015-2016 : Miyoshi Student Model, Zhongbei College of Nanjing Normal University
- 2015 : Zhu Jingwen Scholarship, Nanjing Normal University
- 2015 : Summer Social Practice Advanced Individual, Nanjing Normal University
- 2015 : Zhu Jingwen Scholarship, Nanjing Normal University
- 2014-2015 : Miyoshi Students, Nanjing Normal University
- 2014-2015 : Outstanding Student Cadres, Nanjing Normal University
- 2014-2015 : Outstanding Student Cadres, Zhongbei College of Nanjing Normal University
- 2014-2015 : Miyoshi Student, Zhongbei College of Nanjing Normal University
- 2014-2015 : Excellent Student, Zhongbei College of Nanjing Normal University
- 2014 : “Scholarship Star” Nomination Award, Nanjing Normal University
- 2014 : Third Prize of English Competition, Zhongbei College of Nanjing Normal University
- 2014 : First Prize of Essay Contest, Zhongbei College of Nanjing Normal University
- 2013-2014 : Miyoshi Students, Nanjing Normal University
- 2013-2014 : Miyoshi Student, Zhongbei College of Nanjing Normal University
- 2013 : Advanced Individual in Military Training, Nanjing Normal University
