Abstract
Since the Second World War, the governments of the advanced industrial nations have been called upon to assume increasing responsibility for protecting the public against technological risks. The spate of environmental and health and safety laws enacted in many Western countries during the 1970s attests to the widespread popular demand for a strong governmental role in risk regulation. Although these laws reflect similar public concerns in Europe and the U. S., they differ substantially in the way they allocate risk assessment and management functions between the public and the private sector. I use the terms risk assessment and risk management here as defined in a recent National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report:
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Footnotes
National Academy of Sciences, Risk Assestment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process, National Academy Press, Washington (1983), p. 3.
For a detailed comparison of European and American legislation in the area of toxic substances control, see Ronald Brickman, Shiela Jasanoff, and Thomas Ilgen, Chemical Regulation and Cancer: A Cross-National Study of Policy and Politics, NTIS No. PB-83-206771 (1982).
Sheila Jasanoff, “Negotiation or Cost-Benefit Analysis: A Middle Road for U.S.:Policy?”, The Environmental Forum, Vol. 2 (July 1983) pp. 37–43.
Alvin M. Weinberg, “Science and Trans-Science,” Minerva, No. 10 (1972), pp. 202–222.
See e.g., Amoco Oil Co. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 501 F. 2d 722 (D.C. Cir. 1974).
National Academy of Sciences, op. cit., p. 37.
Samuel Florman, Blaming Technology, Sty Martin’s Press, New York 1981 ) p. 110.
For an elaboration of this concept, see Guy Burgess, “Social and Political Pathologies of Risk Decision Making,” in Dean Mann, ed., Environmental Policy Formulation, Lexington Books, Lexington, MA 1981 ), PP. 149–159
The New York Times (July 14, 1983) p. 22.
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© 1985 Plenum Press, New York
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Jasanoff, S. (1985). Legitimating Private Sector Risk Analysis: A U.S.-European Comparison. In: Whipple, C., Covello, V.T. (eds) Risk Analysis in the Private Sector. Advances in Risk Analysis, vol 220. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2465-2_19
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