Von der Bringpflicht der Wissenschaft und der Holpflicht der Politik – Zu den Erwartungen der Politik an die Wissenschaft

The goal of politics is to enable people to live in dignity and prosperity. Science is indispensable for achieving this goal. But it cannot relieve those responsible for politics of their responsibility, because politics must take into account not only what is scientifically optimal, but also other aspects such as political enforceability, costs, referendum risks or compatibility with international treaties. Science expands our knowledge by means of transparent and verifiable procedures. It is a never-ending process of searching for truth. Scientists often (still) disagree on central questions. All this also opens up opportunities for abuse by politicians: In the event of disagreement, they look for the expert whose opinion is most suitable, or they have expert opinions prepared as a favor, or they deliberately commission experts to look for arguments that confirm their own prejudices, and so on. None of this, however, changes the fact that policymakers need science-based expertise to cope with the complexity of the modern world. Since the state cannot have such expertise comprehensively at its disposal, it must make appropriate use of the knowledge that is abundantly available in business, higher education and civil society. Politics tends to make too little use of science, often because of a certain know-it-all attitude. However, it can be expected from science that it seeks to gain knowledge that helps to solve political problems in practice. Science has a duty to bring, politics a duty to fetch.