When Authoritarians Attack Science, Democracy Is the Real Target

An attack on science is an attack on democracy.

Around the world, we are seeing the rise of a new breed of authoritarian governments. One page in their playbook: to strike at the very foundations of democracy in order to consolidate and maintain their power. A key tactic: to attack science itself.

Those of us who believe in the republican form of democracy need to stand up for science as we stand up for democracy itself. The cuts to the funding of scientific inquiry, personal attacks on scientific leaders, and use of mis- and disinformation to undercut scientific facts are all part of the authoritarian playbook.

I wrote more on this topic in an editorial published in Science, ICYMI. I argue that we need to pay a form of “democracy tax” to support science, scientists, and the truth in this fraught era. Here are the first two paragraphs:

Over the past 19 months, the devastating effects of federal cuts to science funding in the United States have become plain: Young researchers are leaving scientific fields. Labs are struggling to fund promising projects, limiting hiring, training, and sometimes shuttering altogether. Data collected over decades will instead collect dust, ending future scientific discovery and innovation. But perhaps the most serious consequence has been overlooked—the importance of free scientific inquiry to democracy.

The attack on science is part of a play for power taking hold around the world—government overreach designed to disconnect citizens from the truth and advance an authoritarian agenda. And science is far from the only institution under attack. Higher education, media organizations, and the judiciary system are all facing threats. Each of these is an essential institution worth protecting. Together, they represent a nation’s entire information ecosystem—humanity’s collective memory and shared reality.

All of us — citizens, funders, scientists, leaders — have a job to do in standing up for the truth in this upside-down era. The future of democracies may turn on it.