Conclusion

Abstract

This book sought to accomplish two tasks. First, the book applied the Hood et al. (2001) ‘Risk Regulation Regime’ framework to examine comparatively the US and the UK governments’ size, structure and style of management of Y2K according to a cybernetic view of control, drawing on specific examples from four government agencies, two from the United States and two from the United Kingdom. Second, the book used the same framework to test the extent to which such management can be understood as responses to one (or a combination) of three pressures: viz. those arising from the market, the public and organized interests. The data concerning Y2K come mostly from official UK/US government sources, in-depth, semi-structured interviews and newspaper articles.

We find no villains in the federal government’s officials and advisers then and think that anyone (ourselves included) might have done as they did—but we hope not twice

—R. Neustadt and H. Fineberg (1983) The Epidemic that Never Was: Policy-Making and the Swine Flu Affair¹