ABSTRACT
The last decade of the past century and the beginning of the current one have witnessed a spectacular proliferation of independent agencies, which resulted in increased interest in studying their rise, role and mode of operating. Christopher McMahon devotes a chapter of his work to the 'justification of authority', under which he discusses the justification of experts' authority. In order to be able to compete with the principle of democratic legitimacy, the principle of experts' authority should be able to operate as a single, integrating principle of organization of the entire political decision-making system. The classical argument against recognizing decision-making powers allotted to experts in the political field is the one according to which such decisions always involve moral evaluations and moral options and in this regard experts have no advantage compared to non-experts. Although Frank Vibert’s examples are insightful and intellectually stimulating, they are not completely convincing from a normative perspective.
