3 min read
Democratizing Public Health: What the Nicotine Debate Teaches Us About Expertise
The nicotine debate has exposed a crisis of expertise: when the public doesn't trust the experts, and the experts don't trust the public, how should health policy be made? The answer requires democratization—sharing authority with the communities policy affects.
The public health establishment says: 'Trust us, we're the experts.' Nicotine users say: 'We've been misled by you before.' The impasse is not resolvable by more data. It's resolvable by democratization—sharing authority with the communities that policy affects. **The nicotine debate is a case study in the crisis of expertise. The resolution is not better experts. It's a more democratic relationship between experts and the public—one in which expertise is shared, not hoarded.**
