Bringing lay agency into decision-making and demonopolizing scientific expertise seems to have become an urgent matter for Europeans. In this article, we focus on the question in which countries and among whom, such democratization of science is found.

If new terms such as ‘post-fact’, ‘post-truth’, ‘alternative facts’, ‘anti-science’, and ‘fake science’ indicate anything, it is that modern post-industrial societies are characterized by a skeptical and suspicious attitude towards science. Yet, in the face of this looming skepticism, there are also strong indications that the publics of these countries nowadays embrace science as never before. (read more)