Institutional Coherence: Democratic Values and the Cultural Authority of Science

• In Event: Sociology of Culture Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): 10. The Cultural Authority of Science & Medicine

Abstract

Classical sociological theory has long suggested a cultural affinity between scientific authority and democratic governance. Merton argued that scientific norms and democratic institutions share common foundations, while Weber emphasized the broader relationship between expertise, rational-legal authority, and modern statecraft. Yet empirical research examining how publics cognitively and culturally link scientific authority to democratic legitimacy remains limited.

This study revisits the affinity thesis by advancing an institutional coherence framework, conceptualizing the relationship between science and democracy as one of cultural coherence: a shared schema through which individuals interpret complex governance processes. In modern societies, individuals routinely act on expectations that expert knowledge underpins institutional decision-making, including democratic policy formation. At the same time, contemporary sociopolitical conflict suggests that this cultural coherence may be unevenly distributed across ideological groups.

To investigate these dynamics, the analysis integrates repeated cross-sectional data from the General Social Survey with two waves of specialized survey data on science and democracy collected in 2014 and 2026. Multilevel models incorporating dynamic temporal components examine long-term variation in democratic orientations, while structural equation models assess latent relationships among scientific cultural knowledge, affective orientations toward science, and democratic values.

The study contributes to research on public understanding of science and political culture by demonstrating how scientific belief systems function as culturally embedded frameworks shaping democratic commitments. By combining temporal analyses with latent belief system modeling, the findings illuminate both structural coherence and ideological divergence in the cultural relationship linking science and democratic governance.

Authors

• Gordon Gauchat, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

• Kassandra Thompson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee