Abstract: The conception and practice of knowledge democracy emerged in the late 20th century to respond to the social factors exhibited in the development of big science and social risks brought by the uncertainties of scientific knowledge since the mid-20th century. Consequently, knowledge democracy has a significant impact on public policy-making. The impact include the following two aspects. On one hand, knowledge democracy demands the public to participate in the knowledge production and optimize public decisions through utilizing their local knowledge and value judgment. On the other hand, knowledge democracy demands avoidance of the presupposed biases and uncertain risks of knowledge, and reconciliate effectively expert knowledge with public knowledge and public value judgment through knowledge democracy procedures, thus meeting the increasingly complex needs of public decision-making in a risk society.

Key Words: Scientific knowledge; Uncertainty; Public policy-making; Knowledge democracy