International conference
Towards Knowledge Democracy
An initiative of
August 25th – 27th, 2009  Leiden - City of Discoveries
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Politician’s Motive »» Fear »» Greed »» Legitimacy »» Arrogance
“O’Cracy spreads dangerous ideas among the students. He advocates direct forms of people’s involvement, whereas democracy is those who know how to deal with power.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Politician’s Motive »» Fear »» Greed »» Legitimacy »» Arrogance
“O’Cracy publishes stories about so-called corruption of politicians. Complete nonsense! We are the ones who rule the city and we should get paid for that adequately.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Politician’s Motive »» Fear »» Greed »» Legitimacy »» Arrogance
“O’Cracy undermines our democratic rules and regulations by questioning our representativeness. This can not be accepted.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Politician’s Motive »» Fear »» Greed »» Legitimacy »» Arrogance
“Simple citizens like O’Cracy have no right to interfere with professional politics. They do not have the required knowledge.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Politician’s Defence »» Tolerance »» Morality »» Nobility »» Pluralism
“We have to tolerate that people like O’Cracy have strange ideas and put these ideas forward in public.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Politician’s Defence »» Tolerance »» Morality »» Nobility »» Pluralism
“It is immoral to treat a political opponent like O’Cracy otherwise than we like to be treated ourselves.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Politician’s Defence »» Tolerance »» Morality »» Nobility »» Pluralism
“O’Cracy is a nuisance, but we should respect even such individuals.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Politician’s Defence »» Tolerance »» Morality »» Nobility »» Pluralism
“O’Cracy seems to represent a new political movement; this is an enrichment of the political arena.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Civil Servant’s Motive »» Power »» Obedience »» Confusion »» Inconvenience
“O’Cracy challenges the authority of the local administration by demanding citizens’ participation in fields like urban planning”.
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Civil Servant’s Motive »» Power »» Obedience »» Confusion »» Inconvenience
“O’Cracy does not obey the rules and regulations which we have skilfully designed. A student should know his place.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Civil Servant’s Motive »» Power »» Obedience »» Confusion »» Inconvenience
“O’Cracy causes confusion in our carefully organised city administration, because he asks unanswerable questions.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Civil Servant’s Motive »» Power »» Obedience »» Confusion »» Inconvenience
“O’Cracy publishes information which contradicts the results of our own investigation. This causes citizens to ask inconvenient questions.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Civil Servant’s Defence »» Deliberation »» Open society »» Checks & balances »» Best knowledge
“O’Cracy shows that public deliberation about societal problems brings in practical knowledge and increases public support for policies.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Civil Servant’s Defence »» Deliberation »» Open society »» Checks & balances »» Best knowledge
“Maybe our society is too elitist; at least, O’Cracy forces us to think about what a more open society would look like.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Civil Servant’s Defence »» Deliberation »» Open society »» Checks & balances »» Best knowledge
“O’Cracy rightly points at the risk of group thinking in our administration; we need checks and balances, both internally and externally, to do our work well.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Civil Servant’s Defence »» Deliberation »» Open society »» Checks & balances »» Best knowledge
“O’Cracy brings in new knowledge, from new fields of science and from practice. This helps us to combine the available knowledge into information which is most useful for policy making.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Scientist’s Motive »» Protection »» Disturbance »» Authority »» Revolution
“O’Cracy argues that educated citizens should be directly involved in determining the research agenda of the university. If he had got his way, we would never have achieved the scientific discoveries that are so important for society as a whole.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Scientist’s Motive »» Protection »» Disturbance »» Authority »» Revolution
“The university is a place for free thought, but in a a context of authority and merits. O’Cracy thinks he can ignore the rules of the academic world.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Scientist’s Motive »» Protection »» Disturbance »» Authority »» Revolution
“Science must be authoritative. O’Cracy makes people believe that ‘street science’ is also useful. An extremely dangerous idea.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Scientist’s Motive »» Protection »» Disturbance »» Authority »» Revolution
“O’Cracy is man with revolutionary ideas, whereas science is about contemplation, about small steps, about evolution.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Scientist’s Defence »» Curiosity »» Citizens’ science »» Freedom of thought »» Transdisciplinarity
“O’Cracy is a great example for scientists. His curiosity is famous. Like a good scientist, he is not easily satisfied but always wants to dig deeper.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Scientist’s Defence »» Curiosity »» Citizens’ science »» Freedom of thought »» Transdisciplinarity
“O’Cracy brings society inside the ivory towers of the university, by giving citizens the opportunity to present their practical knowledge and experience. Scientific innovations cannot break through when we ignore such citizens’ knowledge.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Scientist’s Defence »» Curiosity »» Citizens’ science »» Freedom of thought »» Transdisciplinarity
“How can one argue that O’Cracy should keep his mouth shut? Freedom of thought and speech is essential for science.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Scientist’s Defence »» Curiosity »» Citizens’ science »» Freedom of thought »» Transdisciplinarity
“O’Cracy shows that the interaction of academic disciplines and practical knowledge increases the chance of better solutions for complex societal problems.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Journalist’s Motive »» Protection »» Pride »» Editorial accountability »» Creating news
“O’Cracy encourages students to write their own, completely biased, leaflets and periodicals. This endangers the future of the free press, which understands its responsibility towards the public”.
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Journalist’s Motive »» Protection »» Pride »» Editorial accountability »» Creating news
“O’Cracy is an amateur journalist and an insult for our profession.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Journalist’s Motive »» Protection »» Pride »» Editorial accountability »» Creating news
“O’Cracy’s news letters are biased and contain unverified information. He thinks he can be a reporter without having an independent edictorial board.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Journalist’s Motive »» Protection »» Pride »» Editorial accountability »» Creating news
“The killing of O’Cracy is a win-win event: it makes our newspaper sell better, and we will not be harassed anymore by him.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Journalist’s Defence »» Freedom of word »» Curiosity »» Pluralism »» Innovation
“Of course O’Cracy should be allowed to speak, write and think what he wants. He is the martyr of freedom of speech.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Journalist’s Defence »» Freedom of word »» Curiosity »» Pluralism »» Innovation
“O’Cracy is in fact a great journalist. He is curious, investigates his cases well, and has a gut feeling for what the public wants to read.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Journalist’s Defence »» Freedom of word »» Curiosity »» Pluralism »» Innovation
“What a pity if our city would become a one-paper city. The more different papers, journals or news letter, the better. Competitors keep you sharp.”
Why was Dem O’ Cracy Murdered? An Inspector Field Mystery
The Journalist’s Defence »» Freedom of word »» Curiosity »» Pluralism »» Innovation
“Some seem to forget that it takes people like O’Cracy to find new ways for collecting the information that is hot now.”