ABSTRACT
The cultural authority of science has become the shorthand for the status of science as an institution in modern societies. Public perception of science and the beliefs held by the public about science and attitudes towards science respectively as the basis of the cultural authority of science have undergone many changes in history. If one sees sciences' cultural authority expressed in the unquestioned trust in the institution of science, this can also be described in terms of indicators of social distance and of exceptionalism. If the cultural authority of science is based on trust in the institution of science the withdrawal of this trust is equivocal to the decline of the authority. Democratisation, politicisation and medialisation are each a symptom of this withdrawal, and their interconnectedness is well summarised by the concept of secularisation with reference to the exceptional status of science.
