ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the tension between political and expert authority in order to consider its effects on the design and implementation of good public policy in a modern, liberal democracy. To understand the elements of good public policy making in a democracy it is necessary to examine the interaction of political and expert authorities in order to see where they may be in accord or, more significantly when and why they may clash and what the outcomes might be in either case. The book explores this issue through eight case studies drawn from a broad spectrum of significant and complex policy domains. Governments draw a vast range of expertise from the hard sciences to engineering science, through biological and medical sciences to the social sciences not to mention legal science as well as on intelligence analysts, accountants and many other varieties of professionals.
