Democratic Accountability in Governance of Science and Technology: on Reflexivity in European Parliamentary Technology Assessment Offices

Nowadays more than ever, dealing with risky scientific and technological issues requires careful attention and sustained policy-making support. In Western Europe, since the 1980s onwards, science and technology (S&T) issues are addressed in the institutional arena of Parliamentary Technology Assessment (PTA) offices. The main function of those PTAs is to increase the democratic accountability of S&T governance by providing the policy-makers and some stakeholders with intelligence on technological innovations and/or by enhancing social debate. Being based on literature research, participatory observation, official document analysis and qualitative data collection (through semi-structured interviews with academics and TA practitioners), we claim that the emergence and development of Parliamentary Technology Assessment offices (PTAs), leading/supposed to lead to an increased democratic accountability, embody a relevant indication of S&T governance becoming more reflexive. We offer case studies of several European PTAs and we are particularly interested in how much reflexivity is visible. After formulating two main dimensions of (reflexive) governance of S&T, openness to plurality and blurring of boundaries, we map the paths of these institutions over time along these two dimensions. Then, we argue than there appears to be a reflexivity pathway, on which some PTAs have moved farther than others. The empirical evidence for such a pathway to exist reveals the multiple features of democratic accountability fostered by one PTA setting or another, which may range from a managerial outcome (decision-makers are accountable) to a public outcome (citizens are accountable) and a professional outcome (scientists are accountable).