This article explores the debates around calls and experiments of democratization in science and technology governance, and compares them with the perspective of science embedded in the concept of epistemic communities, as employed by International Relations theories. It emphasizes the different understandings about "Science and Technology" in each of these approaches. The review and comparison between perspectives of science provided by the Social Studies of Science and Technology and International Relations seeks to contribute to the debate of democratization and public engagement in science and technology beyond a national perspective. The article concludes by pointing to the necessity of recognizing contemporary perspectives of knowledge, as a heterogeneous field of action composed by multiple actors and networks, for an improved analysis of the role of knowledge in international politics.