Knowledge and Volition. The Production of Knowledge in Political Decision-Making

Political action simultaneously seems to be vital and defective. Without non-political input, political decisions can not be made and at the same time scientific facts appear nearly irrelevant concerning the results of decision processes. The implicit assumption of a lack of knowledge in political practice is inherent in most studies about consulting political decision-makers. In contrast we will argue that political actors must not be regarded as simple users of knowledge but as producers of knowledge of the political field. We emphasize that restrictions of what can be politically said or done is primarily regulated by internal forms of constructing political knowledge. Not following a usual reading, We suggest that interest and antagonistic positions shall not be treated as boundary conditions of political decisions, but as subjects of political knowledge emerging in political decisions. In our case study "the imagined layperson", "the existing legal and institutional state of affaires" and "the politics of the parliamentary groups" of the Bavarian Landtag can be identified as constitutive elements of political knowledge about a governable world. Reluctant political decisions or the avoidance of "real" decisions usually provoke a criticism of the actor's obligation to serve their interests. Empirically it shows how strong a differentiated audience limits what can be said or done politically.