Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T11:21:59.577Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How to Escape the Vicious Circle: The Challenges of the Risk Regulation Reflex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Margo Trappenburg  and
Marie-Jeanne Schiffelers
Margo Trappenburg
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance, Utrecht University
Marie-Jeanne Schiffelers
Affiliation:
Utrecht University School of Governance
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In modern Western societies the societal emphasis on risk and the minimization of it frequently leads to a call for increasing risk regulation. This mechanism is referred to as the vicious circle of risk regulation, and might cause a variety of problems such as overregulation and breaches of individual privacy. Different solutions have been put forward to break the vicious circle: a greater emphasis on individual citizens’ responsibility, a more rational approach in which governments calculate the greatest safety yield for a given budget and greater democracy: citizen participation in risk and safety related decision making processes. As each approach involves serious disadvantages the authors argue that a well-considered, unhurried approach might be the best way forward. Leadership is largely about timing and with regard to risk management after critical events taking one's time seems crucial indeed.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of Risk Regulation , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 283 - 291
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 USBO Advies, Universiteit Utrecht, Margo Trappenburg, Marie- Jeanne Schiffelers, Gerolf Pikker and Lieke van de Camp, De risico-regelreflex vanuit politiek perspectief: Verkennend onderzoek naar de meningen van Kamerleden over risico's en verantwoordelijkheden [A political perspective on the risk regulation reflex. Exploratory inquiry into the opinions of Members of Parliament on risks and responsibilities, report commissioned by the Home Office], Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties, February 2012.

3 Cf. e.g. Boin, Arjen, Hart, Paul't, Stern, Eric, and Sudelius, Bengt, The Politics of Crisis Management. Public Leadership under Pressure, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2005, pp.115 et sqq CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Remco Roos, “Reflexen of reflectie?: Een onderzoek naar de omvang van de risico-regelreflex” [Reflexes or reflection? An inquiry into the size of the phenomenon of the risk regulation reflex (MA thesis on file at Utrecht University, 2011).

5 Breyer, Stephen G., Breaking the Vicious Circle: Toward Effective Risk Regulation, (London: Harvard University Press 1993)Google Scholar; Hood, Christopher, Rothstein, Henry, and Baldwin, Robert, The Government of Risk: Understanding Risk Regulation Regimes, (New York: Oxford University Press 2001), at p. 179 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Furedi, Frank, Culture of Fear: Risk-taking and the Morality of Low Expectations, Revisited Edition, (London/New York: Continuum 2005)Google Scholar; Raad voor het openbaar bestuur, Burgers, bestuur en veiligheid: Over de rol van burgers en de verwachtingen die zij hebben van de overheid (Civilians, government and safety: on the role of civilians and their expectations of the Government) January 2011, <http://www.rob-rfv.nl/default.aspx?skin=Rob&inc=detail&id=1096&dossier_id=&type=publicatie> (last accessed on 06 August 2012); Macrae, Donald, “Standards for Risk Assessment of Standards: How the International Community is Starting to Address the Risk of the Wrong Standards”, 14(8) Journal of Risk Research (2011), pp. 933 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Löfstedt, Ragnar, Bouder, Frederic, Wardman, Jamie, and Chakraborty, Sweta, “The Changing Nature of Communication and Regulation of Risk in Europe”, 14(4) Journal of Risk Research (2011), pp.409 et sqq., at p. 413CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Remco Roos, “Reflexen of reflectie?, supra note 4; USBO Advies, Universiteit Utrecht, Margo Trappenburg et al. “De risico-regelreflex vanuit politiek perspectief”, supra note 2.

6 See for example a research conducted under Dutch Members of Parliament by Trappenburg et al (supra note 2) which showed that all MP respondents recognized the risk regulation phenomenon although many respondents did not perceive it as problematic.

7 Breyer, Breaking the vicious circle, supra note 5.

8 Furedi, Culture of Fear, supra note 5, at p. xi.

9 Furedi, Culture of Fear, supra note 5.

10 Gardner, Daniel, The Science of Fear: How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain, (London: a Plume book 2009)Google Scholar.

11 Löfstedt et al. “The Changing Nature of Communication and Regulation of Risk in Europe”, supra note 5, at p. 411.

12 Hood et al., The Government of Risk, supra note 5, at p. 179.

13 Patrick van IJzendoorn, “Britse obsessie om burgers te beschermen loopt spuigaten uit” [British obsession to protect citizens is going too far], De Volkskrant, 27 February 2012, at p. 5.

14 van Eeten, Michel, “De diva en het noodlot. Kan de keizer worden behaagd met fatalisme?” [The diva and fate. Can we please the emperor with fatalism?], in van Tol, Jan, Helsloot, Ira and Mertens, Ferdinand (eds), Veiligheid boven alles? Essays over oorzaken en gevolgen van de risico-regelreflex [Safety above all? Essays on the causes and consequences of the risk regulation reflex] (Den Haag: Boom Lemma uitgevers 2011), pp.73 et sqq., at p. 74Google Scholar.

15 Macrae, “Standards for Risk Assessment of Standards”, supra note 5, at p. 933.

16 Helsloot, Ira, “Over een mooi kerstdiner, kalkoenen en andere wetmatigheden” [On Christmas dinners, turkeys and other social laws], in Tol, Jan van, Helsloot, Ira and Mertens, Ferdinand (eds), Veiligheid boven alles? Essays over oorzaken en gevolgen van de risico-regelreflex [Safety above all? Essays on the causes and consequences of the risk regulation reflex] (Den Haag: Boom Lemma uitgevers 2011), pp.101 et sqq., at p. 109Google Scholar.

17 Hood et al., The Government of Risk, supra note 5; Furedi, Culture of Fear, supra note 5.

18 Slovic, Paul, Fischhoff, Baruch and Lichtenstein, Sarah, “Behavioural Decision Theory Perspectives on Risk and Safety”, 56 Acta Psychologica (1984), pp.183 et sqq CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Slovic et al., “Behavioural Decision Theory Perspectives on Risk and Safety”, supra note 18, at p. 189.

20 Gardner, The Science of Fear, supra note 10, at p. 6.

21 Gardner, The Science of Fear, supra note 10, at p. 6.

22 Ali, Ayaan Hirsi, Nomade [Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations], (Amsterdam: Augustus 2010)Google Scholar.

23 Pauline Sinnema, “Interview with Anna Enquist”, Het Parool, 9 May 2003 (edited fragment).

24 Thompson, Michael, Ellis, Richard and Wildavsky, Aaron, Cultural Theory, (Boulder: Political Cultures Series, Westview Press 1990)Google Scholar.

25 Van Eeten proposes coupling this fatalism with a generous promise from the government to pay all costs. This renders fatalism a more attractive option but does not solve everything. Many risks cannot be compensated by money (human lives, damage to health). Van Eeten , “De diva en het noodlot”, supra note 14. Cf. also Van Eeten’s contribution to this issue of EJRR.

26 Helsloot, Ira, Pieterman, Roel and Hanekamp, Jaap C., Risico's en redelijkheid. Verkenning van een rijksbreed beoordelingskader voor de toelaatbaarheid van risico's [Risks and reason. Considerations on a central government assessment framework for risk acceptability] (The Hague: Boom Juridische Uitgevers 2010) at p. 45 Google Scholar.

27 Margo Trappenburg, “De drie rijken van de zorg” [Three empires in the world of health care], in Jan Willem Duvyendak et al (eds), De sociale kaart van Nederland [A sociological map of the Netherlands], forthcoming 2012.

28 Weber, Max, “The Profession and Vocation of Politics”, in Lassman, Peter and Speirs, Ronald (eds.), Weber Political Writings, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1994 [first published in 1919]), pp. 309 et sqq., at p. 310–311Google Scholar; Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan. Edited with an Introduction by C.B. Macpherson (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books 1984 [first published in 1651].

29 Noël van Bemmel, “Spreek eerst de dader aan en bel daarna de politie” [First approach the offender and then phone the police], De Volkskrant, 21 April 2010 (edited fragment)

30 Compare Margo Trappenburg, “Wegen en meten” [Weighing and measuring], NRC column 7 July 2006. Available on the Internet at <http://www.margotrappenburg.nl> (last accessed on 06 August 2012).

31 Van Asselt, Marjolein and Renn, Ortwin, “Risk Governance”, 14(4) Journal of Risk Research (2011), pp.431 et sqq., at p. 432CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Douglas, Mary and Wildavsky, Aaron, Risk and Culture, An Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers, (Berkeley: University of California Press 1983)Google Scholar.

33 Corvellec, Hervé, “Even Beyond Humanity – a Comment on ‘Change and Commitment: Beyond Risk and Responsibility’ by Silvio Funtowitcz and Roger Strand”, 14 (8) Journal of Risk Research (2011) pp.1005 et sqq., at p.1005CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Cantelli, Fabrizio, Kodate, Naonori and Krieger, Kristian, “Towards Democratic Governance of Uncertainty? Contesting Notions of Participation, Control and Accountability”, 14 (8) Journal of Risk Research (2011) pp.919 et sqq., at p. 925CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Arjen Schreuder, “Staatsgreep en wachthuisjes tegen ‘groene leugen’; Provincie, Natuurmonumenten en waterschap willen van 300 hectare Horstermeerpolder natte natuur maken”, [Arjen Schreuder, Coup and guards against ‘a green lie’; the province, Natuurmonument conservation organisation and waterboard want to turn 300 hectares of the Hostermeer polder into marshland], NRC Handelsblad, 9 March 2010.

36 Kinney, Aimee and Leschine, Thomas, “A Procedural Evaluation of an Analytic-Deliberative Process: The Colombia River Comprehensive Impact Assessment”, 22(1) Risk Analysis, pp.83 et sqq CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Löfstedt et al. “The Changing Nature of Communication and Regulation of Risk in Europe”, supra note 5, at p. 413.

38 Boin, Arjen and Hart, Paul 't, “Public Leadership in Times of Crisis: Mission Impossible?”, 63 (5) Public Administration Review (2003), pp.544 et sqq. at p. 551CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Boin, Arjen, “The New World of Crises and Crisis Management: Implications for Policymaking and Research”, 26 (4) Review of Policy Research (2009), pp.367 et sqq at p. 370CrossRefGoogle Scholar.