Policy Design for Legitimacy : Expert Knowledge, Citizens, Time and Inclusion in the United Kingdom’s Biotechnology Sector

Résumé : More than ever, policy designers need to take legitimacy deficits seriously. To do so, they increasingly involve citizens in policy design processes and draw from a wider range of expertise. Where should they stop in terms of inclusiveness to citizens and expertise and for how long should they allow citizens and experts to be persuasive ? These are the questions addressed in this article. Policy design legitimacy, the article argues, can be related to variations in designers and politicians’ inclination to resort to output-oriented (expertise-based) versus input-oriented (citizen-centred) design processes. Input-oriented processes have a higher potential in terms of legitimacy deficit reduction than output-oriented processes, but they take longer, notably because they require the involvement of large numbers of people. In contrast, output-oriented processes have a slightly lower legitimacy potential, but can produce it faster. These propositions are illustrated by two policy design narratives drawn from the United Kingdom’s biotechnology sector.

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