When expertise goes awry, and when it proves helpful

Places the political use of expertise into a larger conceptual framework. Argues that there are sharp limits on knowledge of any kind displacing politics as a method of settling value-laden disputes, and that purveyors of expertise ought to see it as an aid or supplement to partisan negotiations among affected interests-never a substitute for it. Argues that the main path for improving expertise is in helping decision makers devise initial precautions, craft flexible policy trials, speed up learning from experience, and otherwise cope with the uncertainty inherent in complex social choices. Suggests that the intelligence of social outcomes ordinarily is enhanced when experts utilize their abilities on behalf of social interests that otherwise would be disadvantaged in political negotiations