Expertise and experience: a deliberative system of a functional division of labor for post-normal risk governance

Public policy is increasingly facing human-made risks in various domains (technology, environment, energy, food, health, security, etc.) that pose new challenge for risk governance. These risks induce cognitive, evaluative and normative challenges that result from uncertainty and ambiguity. This necessitates a new interplay between the state, experts, stakeholder groups, and the public at large. We confront the notion of risk governance with theories of deliberative democracy: How can societies develop deliberative institutions and processes for governing risks more effectively and how can society be better involved in risk governance? We argue that a deliberative system with a functional division of labor that assigns specific tasks to and recognizes specific competences in experts, stakeholder groups, and citizens facilitates an appropriate integration of scientific and experiential substance. We argue that the integration of expertise and experience can be conveyed by differentiated deliberation by expert, stakeholders, and the public, which produces better outcomes than the classical risk analysis approach in many regulatory systems. To this end, we combine theory, normative conceptualization, and institutional practicability.