ABSTRACT
Many investigations proceed from the assumption that there is a present demand for expert knowledge, and that its benefi ts are evident. They detect an increase in knowledge-based services. Thus Dietrich Rüschemeyer (1986: 124-5), for example, describes this social change as a
At the same time, reference is made to a cumulative, growing knowledge – which is as a rule confronted, however, by the increasing ignorance of a majority of the population of modern societies (e.g. Merton, 1975).
