A Science Policy Outsider’s Theory of Change
Going mainstream has a cost. But staying outside has a cost too. The point is not to remain marginal forever. The point is to preserve the outsider’s discipline: the habit of asking what the mainstream cannot yet ask, the patience to move when the current opens, and the humility to know that it will take a few punts to get there from here.
The Wrong Gatekeeper
Scientists should judge scientific merit. Congress should define public purposes. Agencies should administer programs transparently. Courts should determine whether agencies remain within statutory authority. And the public should help deliberate on contested values, social consequences, and trade-offs. That is the missing democratic architecture.
Can Philanthropy Save Public Science?
Philanthropy can help save science by rebuilding the democratic foundations of science: public trust, public capacity, public deliberation, and public legitimacy. But if philanthropy becomes the off-cycle home for scientific and technological agendas that cannot secure durable democratic support, it will not save science.
