Linking Governance Values, Public Beliefs, and Citizen Participation
The Science in Dialogue seminar series explores the relationship between the sciences, highlighting connections, mutual influences and common challenges. The aim is to stimulate critical and open discussion, fostering an integrated view of knowledge and offering food for thought on the very nature of scientific research in its cultural, historical and social context. Through interdisciplinary meetings, scholars from different fields and backgrounds will discuss the role of science in the construction of knowledge and in contemporary society. Central issues such as the relationship between science and history, the impact of scientific innovations on humanistic thought, the role of scientific communication and the tensions between specialisation and interdisciplinarity will be explored. Each seminar will be an opportunity to question how science contributes not only to technical progress, but also to the understanding of the world and man. The historical-philosophical perspective, in particular, will make it possible to highlight how science is not an isolated activity, but the result of a continuous dialogue with the social, cultural and intellectual context in which it develops, offering essential tools for interpreting the challenges of the present and the future.
Presentation of the book "Democracy Administered How Public Administration Shapes Representative Government"
Abstarct
I argue that giving ordinary people a real, but bounded role in administration can make democracy harder to break. Building on European hard and soft law, I argue that authorized discretion links bureaucratic choices to democratic principles that citizens already recognize. When people encounter these rules in practice, they get better at judging what responsible administration looks like. And because this framework has a built-in “structural integrity” principle, it helps public institutions resist destabilizing pressures—including populist ones—by empowering citizens to help defend them.
Speaker introduction
Anthony Michael Bertelli: Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at the Pennsylvania State University, where he holds the Douglas S. and Joyce L. Sherwin Chair of Liberal Arts, honouring Frank Whitmore. He is also Senior Research Fellow at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI), Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Public Policy, and Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. https://tonybertelli.com/
Discussant
Simona Piattoni, Università di Trento
Jens Woelk, Università di Trento
Halyna Dovhan, Università di Trento
Rada Sitar, Università di Trento