ELEMENTS OF TECHNICAL DEMOCRACY

The concept of technical democracy is both obvious and perplexing: with technology so often appearing to be a natural extension of science, why should citizens have any say in the matter? And yet how could we imagine or accept that technical systems, which have such an impact on individual and collective choices, could escape the deliberations of civic opinion and decision-making? Citizens must be able to acquire the skills of democratic expertise to then be able to exercise them when strategic decisions are being taken. If we are to move towards this objective, the stakes are very high. Even if a movement is initiated that aims to construct a fairer, more civic and more democratic society, the appropriation of technical issues in both education and the workplace is confronted with multiple types of inertia.