The best way to prevent expert power is to remove the incentive or ability for an expert to gain power on the basis of the dire nature of their predictions. The private sector has a number of avenues to prevent this phenomena. First, experts are fired if they are wrong in the private sector; this ensures expertise is valued for its correctness, not influence. Second, multiple experts may be consulted in an independent manner; while experts certainly will not agree, this will prevent a single expert from having undue influence on the result. Finally, experts are compensated in a way that separate them from the results they give. Appraisers cannot purchase items they appraise for instance. Adopting these principles in the public sector may prevent expert power; experts should not in any way benefit based on the specific nature of their opinion in a single case.
RE: Week 12 -- Question about the prevention of expert power