Page 304 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2

STS496 Roeland B.

The requirements for a well-functioning
statistical system in a modern democratic society
Roeland Beerten
Flemish Statistics Authority, Statistics Flanders, Brussels, Belgium

Abstract
This paper provides a discussion of the characteristics of a modern democratic
society, and which elements in a democratic system are necessary for official
statistics to properly function in order to contribute to the quality of
democratic decision-making. It will do this by first discussing which
institutional conditions are necessary for an official statistical system to
contribute to strengthening democratic decision-making, accountability and
transparency. Secondly, it will look at how official statistics systems relate to
the branches of democratic government and how these branches can shape
the conditions for official statistics to function effectively and efficiently. It will
analyse the conditions and requirements to achieve organisational and
technical independence and the professional autonomy of statisticians, by
giving some examples of how different countries organise their official
statistics systems within government.

Keywords
Official statistics; government; democracy; institutional framework;
professional independence

1. Statistics and democratic society
Etymologically, the word ‘statistics’ refers to the state. In the past, statistics
were used by autocrats as ‘the state’s science’ in order to exert, consolidate
and expand their political and military power. The concept of a population
count (census) has existed for more than two thousand years: it was the only
way to find out how much manpower was available for an army, or how much
tax could be collected (Pullinger, 2013).
With the arrival of the Enlightenment, a new interpretation of power took
hold, which crushed the autocratic view of the state. Along came a shift in
ideas about the goal of ‘the state’s science’. Statistics were no longer regarded
as a measure of a state’s strength and power, but rather as a measure of
‘society’s happiness’. For example, an early data collection at the end of the
18 century in Scotland was described as (Sinclair, J. (1798), as quoted in
th
Pullinger (2013)):”an inquiry into the state of a country for the purposes of
ascertaining the quantum of happiness enjoyed by its inhabitants and the
means of its future improvement”.

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