Forskningsrådens roll i styrelseskicket

Forskningens självständiga roll och folkviljans primat

Abstract

The role of research councils in democratic governance: The autonomous role of research and the primacy of the will of the people.

While the role of universities in democratic systems has long been debated, there has been no principled discussion of the position of research councils. This text illustrates how two ideal-type positions with different ideals of democracy confront each other and provide different perspectives on the role of government agencies in the democratic system in general and the relationship of research councils to government in particular. One position is characterized by the principle of the free role of research in society, which implies that research councils should have a certain degree of autonomy in order to ensure the perspectives of the research community in relevant decision-making processes. The second ideal-type position, referred to here as the primacy of the will of the people, is characterized by the idea that the research community must also be subordinate to democratically made decisions and that the research councils, like all government agencies, are in a clear relationship of obedience to the government. These two positions logically lead to quite different ideas about how research councils should be organized and what their tasks should be.