The Weaponization of Expertise: How Elites Fuel Populism

Russell, Jacob Hale,Patterson, Dennis

ISBN 10: 0262049597 / ISBN 13: 9780262049597

Published by The MIT Press, 2025

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Synopsis:

"The problem with expertise—and the dark side of the equation “knowledge = power.” Experts are not infallible. Treating them as such has done us all a grave disservice—and, as The Weaponization of Expertise makes painfully clear, given rise to the very populism that all-knowing experts and their elite coterie decry. Jacob Hale Russell and Dennis Patterson use the devastating example of the COVID-19 pandemic to illustrate their case, revealing how the hubris of all-too-human experts undermined—perhaps irreparably—public faith in elite policymaking. Paradoxically, by turning science into dogmatism, the overweening elite response has also proved deeply corrosive of expertise itself—in effect, doing exactly what elite policymakers accuse their critics of doing. A much-needed corrective to a dangerous blind faith in expertise, The Weaponization of Expertise identifies a cluster of pathologies that have enveloped many institutions meant to help referee expert knowledge, in particular a disavowal of the doubt, uncertainty, and counterarguments that are crucial to the accumulation of knowledge. At a time when trust in expertise and faith in institutions are most needed and most lacking, this work issues a stark reminder that a crisis of misinformation may well begin at the top."

About the Author: Jacob Hale Russell is Associate Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School.

Dennis Patterson is Board of Governors Professor at Rutgers Law School and Professor of Legal Philosophy at Surrey Law School, UK. He is the author, with Michael Pardo, of Minds, Brains, and Law.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Weaponization of Expertise: How Elites ...
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Date: 2025
Binding: hardcover
Condition: Fine