Healthy Institutions: Technocracy, Democracy, and Legitimacy in EU GMO Regulation

A majority of EU citizens support restrictions on GMOs, despite assurances of the scientific community of the safety of these products. The European Commission under the leadership of Jean-Claude Juncker has been attempting to respond to these public desires; however, Juncker’s policy proposals contravene the European Court of Justice and the World Trade Organization and threaten the integrity of the European Single Market and the vitality of European economic competitiveness; further, when placed in the context of long-term regulatory changes in the EU, they threaten to reduce the role of scientific expertise in policymaking decisions, with implications for European technological and scientific leadership.What should European institutions do about the GMO question, and are there possible resolutions to this dilemma?

This investigation draws implications for the intersection of public opinion, regulation, and science policy in the EU and throughout Western democracies, particularly regulation of new technologies, and finds that science and democracy should and do occupy separate spheres. It argues that too much democratic interference into scientific processes poses a problem for the validity of science and threatens the societal underpinnings that give rise to scientific innovation and progress. The investigation also comments on the broader question of authority in modern Western democracies.