As for me: puzzled that one person’s solution is
FACULTY OF SCIENCE
another person’s problem (Maradanga, West Bengal)
Social anthropology → Policy & Governance /
political science
• Problem-focused and solution oriented
Policy, politics, participation • With an eye for power dynamics
Lecture 1: Introduction –
(Dis)trust in politics and science: Do we have a problem?
Fall 2025
Dr. Anne Loeber
With which question does this course start for me? Democratic Fatigue Syndrome?
Then how will ‘we’ as a
community
“There is something strange going on with democracy. Everyone jointly get to decide on
seems to want it but no one believes in it any longer…” (Van what to do next
Reybrouck, 2016, p.9) → Democratic Fatigue Syndrome in the face of trouble?
M. Kettle (2024) The shocking US election result will create a new world order – and launch a fresh wave of Trump wannabes
The Guardian Nov 6; https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/06/us-election-donald-trump-new-world-order
, FACULTY OF SCIENCE Today: description & diagnosis
Policy, politics, participation - core focus: • Politics → political organization: how? What’s wrong?
→ how do we as a society organise for solutions to societal
problems? Break
• Political organisation
policy • Policy → what is it? How does knowledge (not) help
• Scientific research achieve policy goals?
• L1 Introduction: description & diagnosis
• GL1 puzzling in practice • Overview of course design and requirements
• L2 Deliberation as a solution: towards consensus
• L3 Democratising science
• GL2 Critical reflection: embracing dissensus
→ establish clarity on the substantive link between the
• L4 transdiscipinarity core focus of this course and its focus group assignment
Solutions: three ‘ways’ (mechanisms) to create social order
Societal problems: point of departure … and resolve problems
Starting point for policy is problems
How to jointly address shared problems?
• Self-organisation of societal actors
• Market dynamics
• Hierarchy: state organisation
→ networks
,Market mechanism ‘Hierarchy mechanism’: government
Self-interest and the division of labor in an economy result in mutual
interdependencies that promote stability and prosperity through the market
mechanism. Smith rejected government interference in market activities.
Key assumption:
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we
expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest (Adam Smith,
• Citizens are born as free people with inalienable rights (John Locke,
1632-1704)
1776)
• They hive off some of their rights to a state organisation
Key assumption: • That limits them to a certain extent in their freedom
• in a free market, • in exchange for safety and stability
• self-interest will inevitably • Hence: the state’s monopoly on the legitimate use of force
result in a beneficial
situation for all
• without central planning
Picture: Yogendra Joshi - Floating Market, Bangkok, Source: Flickr
Picture: Boris Johnson gives his inaugural speech as prime minister in the House of Commons, 25 July 2019. Photograph: UK Parliamentar y Recording Unit/EPA
State organization: organized power & conflict
Authoritarian regime: regime in which a small group of individuals exercises power
over the state with no constitutional responsibility to the public
Politics
Democratic regime: regime that represents political institutions and practices which
include universal suffrage, and reflects a high level of tolerance of opposition that is
sufficient to check the arbitrary inclinations of the government
ATHENA INSTITUTE – Anne Loeber
, Traditional inegalitarian
Freedom House Authority of the state
Pre-modern times:
The power to rule was ‘god given’
https://freedomhouse.org
a ‘mandate from heaven’ → authority
to make binding decisions
‘binding’ to those under his rule
Liberal democratic
Authoritarian
inegalitarian Populist
→ Why would citizens allocate power to some ruling organisation?
Lorenzetti: allegory of the good government (Siena, 1338)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 states as much: ‘The will of the people
shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic
and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and
shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures’ (Cited in Van
Reybrouck 2016, p.30
Palazzo Pubblico, Siena 1338 Power ‘from below’: can be shared
and is negotiable → can be withheld!
17
FACULTY OF SCIENCE
another person’s problem (Maradanga, West Bengal)
Social anthropology → Policy & Governance /
political science
• Problem-focused and solution oriented
Policy, politics, participation • With an eye for power dynamics
Lecture 1: Introduction –
(Dis)trust in politics and science: Do we have a problem?
Fall 2025
Dr. Anne Loeber
With which question does this course start for me? Democratic Fatigue Syndrome?
Then how will ‘we’ as a
community
“There is something strange going on with democracy. Everyone jointly get to decide on
seems to want it but no one believes in it any longer…” (Van what to do next
Reybrouck, 2016, p.9) → Democratic Fatigue Syndrome in the face of trouble?
M. Kettle (2024) The shocking US election result will create a new world order – and launch a fresh wave of Trump wannabes
The Guardian Nov 6; https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/06/us-election-donald-trump-new-world-order
, FACULTY OF SCIENCE Today: description & diagnosis
Policy, politics, participation - core focus: • Politics → political organization: how? What’s wrong?
→ how do we as a society organise for solutions to societal
problems? Break
• Political organisation
policy • Policy → what is it? How does knowledge (not) help
• Scientific research achieve policy goals?
• L1 Introduction: description & diagnosis
• GL1 puzzling in practice • Overview of course design and requirements
• L2 Deliberation as a solution: towards consensus
• L3 Democratising science
• GL2 Critical reflection: embracing dissensus
→ establish clarity on the substantive link between the
• L4 transdiscipinarity core focus of this course and its focus group assignment
Solutions: three ‘ways’ (mechanisms) to create social order
Societal problems: point of departure … and resolve problems
Starting point for policy is problems
How to jointly address shared problems?
• Self-organisation of societal actors
• Market dynamics
• Hierarchy: state organisation
→ networks
,Market mechanism ‘Hierarchy mechanism’: government
Self-interest and the division of labor in an economy result in mutual
interdependencies that promote stability and prosperity through the market
mechanism. Smith rejected government interference in market activities.
Key assumption:
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we
expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest (Adam Smith,
• Citizens are born as free people with inalienable rights (John Locke,
1632-1704)
1776)
• They hive off some of their rights to a state organisation
Key assumption: • That limits them to a certain extent in their freedom
• in a free market, • in exchange for safety and stability
• self-interest will inevitably • Hence: the state’s monopoly on the legitimate use of force
result in a beneficial
situation for all
• without central planning
Picture: Yogendra Joshi - Floating Market, Bangkok, Source: Flickr
Picture: Boris Johnson gives his inaugural speech as prime minister in the House of Commons, 25 July 2019. Photograph: UK Parliamentar y Recording Unit/EPA
State organization: organized power & conflict
Authoritarian regime: regime in which a small group of individuals exercises power
over the state with no constitutional responsibility to the public
Politics
Democratic regime: regime that represents political institutions and practices which
include universal suffrage, and reflects a high level of tolerance of opposition that is
sufficient to check the arbitrary inclinations of the government
ATHENA INSTITUTE – Anne Loeber
, Traditional inegalitarian
Freedom House Authority of the state
Pre-modern times:
The power to rule was ‘god given’
https://freedomhouse.org
a ‘mandate from heaven’ → authority
to make binding decisions
‘binding’ to those under his rule
Liberal democratic
Authoritarian
inegalitarian Populist
→ Why would citizens allocate power to some ruling organisation?
Lorenzetti: allegory of the good government (Siena, 1338)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 states as much: ‘The will of the people
shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic
and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and
shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures’ (Cited in Van
Reybrouck 2016, p.30
Palazzo Pubblico, Siena 1338 Power ‘from below’: can be shared
and is negotiable → can be withheld!
17
