Science is not about votes or people's will. It is wholly and solely about fact. But fact is manipulable. Science debunks manipulated facts otherwise known as untruths. Truth turns up only when no stone is unturned. Scientists are investigators through and through. Science is a fact-finding mission first and foremost. Its findings have to be peer-reviewed so that doubts can be raised and addressed. That's why secret science projects always arouse public suspicion. In an open society, we have elected officials monitor secret science projects. But we are still skeptical, knowing that elected officials could be corrupt. In a close society, meanwhile, skeptics are always an endangered species.

Compared to autocracy, democracy is much more conducive to self-rectification because everything under the sun is subject to debate. No serious science can thrive without open debate. Speaking of which, during the pre-Qin period (a far cry from an age of democracy), there were so-called a hundred schools of thought contending with each other. Qin changed all that, for the worse. Today, China models on Qin while a hundred schools of thought are alive and kicking in America.

Science is not democracy but it benefits hugely from democracy, and vice versa.

Author: Lingyang Jiang