And while the global population has 5  grown from about 5 billion in 1990 to about 7 billion today , the number who go to bed hungry has fallen from 6  about a billion to 795 million . The application of expertise has given us not just aqueducts, sanitation, roads, education and wine, but much, much more. With these achievements in mind, it is not surprising that many decisions have been delegated to experts – by which I mean those who have invested time to develop a deep knowledge of a particular subject, usually with credentials and ongoing professional development to maintain their skills. Since the time when Caesar introduced the Julian Calendar based on expert advice to prevent the pontifex from manipulating the dates to 7  favour their political allies, politicians have turned to experts to help them make better decisions. The mechanisms for doing this have varied: trusted advisors; independent commissions tasked with solving a particular problem; expert witnesses appearing before parliament or the courts; or creating expert institutions with well-defined mandates to deliver a policy objective. A well-known example of such technocracy in action in the UK is the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) which is tasked with making the difficult trade-offs around which treatments will be funded by the National Health Service. This ensures those decisions are made on the basis of medical science and rigorous cost benefit analysis, and insulates politicians from lobbying by different interests.
For that reason, there has been an exponential increase in mechanisms to hold experts to account as more decisions require technical input. Michael Power describes the proliferation of such activity – not just financial audits but audits and reviews of boards, research quality, process reviews, environmental impact, independent evaluation offices, parliamentary inquiries, etc. 39  Critics argue that such “bean counting”  is costly, results in risk aversion, and diverts resources from important work. Having been on the receiving end of a great deal of this “checking,” I think it is a small price to pay to legitimize expert input to democratic decision making. Conclusion  So what have the experts ever done for us? The application of knowledge and the cumulation of that through education and dissemination through various media and institutions are integral to human progress. So the question is not how to manage without experts, but how to ensure that there are mechanisms in place to ensure they are trustworthy. More humility and candour about the limits of expertise is a starting point, as is clearer communication. More rigorous assessment of ideas will generate better solutions. Better tools to allow the public to differentiate among ideas are also needed, as is the need to encourage more genuine listening to others’ views. Managing the boundaries and accountabilities between experts and politicians better will help maintain the balance between technocracy and democracy. Getting this right is vital for determining whether our futures are shaped by ignorance and narrow-mindedness, or by knowledge and informed debate.