In recent years, liberal democratic societies have struggled with the question of how best to balance expertise and … committees handle the practical tension between scientific expertise, ethical expertise, expert patient input, and lay public … input by explaining two institutions' processes for determining the legitimacy or illegitimacy of reasons in public policy …

The article deals with the ambiguous relation between fear and expertise, and examines how it affects institutions … relying on expertise in order to be perceived as rational actors. Fear, therefore, can be considered as a central element in … determining the legitimacy of institutions in modern societies. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 …