Science and Politics

I always found the realtionship between Science and Politics very fascinating.
On the one hand, at least in Germany, a lot of scientists claim that is very important for them to be independent of politics. Which was for a lot of them never really true – most university salaries are paid by the state, a lot of research is funded by public money etc.
But with the shift to open access this takes on a whole new meaning: Scientists will need government money (in most cases) to publish their results as well. So the dependence on government grows stronger and stronger. I’m not sure whether that is a healthy relationship and I’m also not sure whether that is what the OA movement had in mind originally. Given that most Western countries are becoming more and more nationalistic and authoritarian, it makes me wonder how these things will play out over the coming years. Interesting times ahead, be careful what you wish for … .