Science, Technology, And Policy Decisions by Anne L. Hiskes Richard P. Hiskes

Author:Anne L. Hiskes, Richard P. Hiskes [Anne L. Hiskes, Richard P. Hiskes]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology
ISBN: 9781000310894
Google: jayhDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-07-09T03:48:12+00:00

Risk and Responsibility in Policy Making

In the United States, risk taking is a factor of everyday life met with both fear and enjoyment. The free-enterprise system places a positive value on the willingness to take risks to achieve success, and the U.S. political theory of liberalism stresses the individual's ability and right to rationally cope with risk without undue interference by government. Yet all governments are exclusively charged with alleviating some kinds of risk in society, for example, those arising through crime or war. Thus the policy environment for dealing with risk is intrinsically filled with dilemma and paradox for those charged with making public policy. The long legislative and policy battles over Social Security, the 55-mile-per-hour speed limit, the drinking age, and automobile seat belts are examples of this curious paradox.

Modern technological society is undeniably safer than any other in history. The average life span of Americans continues to increase, and because of countless medical and technological innovations, the risk of contracting many diseases has lessened. Yet Americans are acutely aware of the risks of living in our time. Psychologists point to the unconscious fears of many young people concerning nuclear war, and the threats of crime and accelerating technological innovation bring new and uncomfortable feelings of living at risk.

Many of the new feelings of risk in modern society are simply the result of increased knowledge. The more we learn about ourselves and the world, the more risks we are able to identify. Knowing that risks exist, however, does not necessarily make them easier to eradicate. In fact, sometimes the more we know about environmental risks the more persistent they become as policy problems. Although awareness of the alphabet soup of toxic human-created chemicals in our environment (for example, EDB, PCB, PBC, DDT) has made citizens notice health risks, it has not made it any easier to formulate policy to protect the public health. Furthermore, the knowledge that we have made or chosen new risks frequently causes us to feel guilty—making policy formulation more difficult. The New Yorker cartoon of a woman at a lunch counter reading a menu consisting of entrees followed by their possible cancer-producing effects is a commentary on the public consciousness of self-assumed risk that often turns decisions about risk taking into issues of personal freedom and moral choice.

The same transformation affects large-scale technological policy as well. For example, on one hand, the risks of waste materials are known and largely undisputed, as is the need for policy in this area. On the other, the varying attitudes concerning the attendant risks make these policies difficult to formulate and implement because of claims of individual rights and free choice.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.