The Government of Risk Understanding Risk Regulation Regimes

by Hood, Christopher; Rothstein, Henry; Baldwin, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780199270019
• ISBN10: 0199270015
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-05-06
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Why does regulation vary so dramatically from one area to another? Why are some risks regulated aggressively and others responded to only modestly? Is there any logic to the techniques we use in risk regulation? These key questions are explored in The Government of Risk. This book looks at anumber of risk regulation regimes, considers the respects in which they differ, and examines how these differences can be justified.Analyzing regulation in terms of 'regimes' allows us to see the rich, multi-dimensional nature of risk regulation. It exposes the thinness of society-wide analyses of risk controls and it offers a perspective that single case studies cannot reach. Regimes analysis breaks down the components of riskregulation systems and shows how they interact. It also shows how different parts of the same regime may be shaped by different factors and have to be explained and understood in quite different ways. The Government of Risk shows how such an approach is of high policy relevance as well as ofconsiderable theoretical importance.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xii
List of Tables	xiii
I. Introducing Risk Regulation Regime
1. What are Risk Regulation Regimes? Why do they Matter?	3	(17)
2. The Comparative Anatomy of Risk Regulation Regimes	20	(16)
3. Nine Risk Regulation Regimes Compared	36	(25)
II. Explaining Variation in Risk Regulation Regimes
4. How Far does Context Shape Content in Risk Regulation Regimes?	61	(9)
5. Exploring the 'Market Failure' Hypothesis	70	(20)
6. Opinion-Responsive Government and Risk Regulation	90	(22)
7. Interests, Lobbies, and Experts	112	(21)
8. Regime Content and Context Revisited: An Overall Picture	133	(14)
III. Exploring the Dynamics of Risk Regulation Regimes
9. Regime Development Under Pressure: Staged Retreats and Lateral Mutations?	147	(24)
10. The Regime Perspective in Risk Regulation: Implications for Policy and Institutional Design	171	(16)
Appendix A: Further Reading on Law and Policy in Nine Risk Regulation Regimes	187	(3)
Appendix B: Coded List of Interviewees	190	(4)
Appendix C: Methodological Notes for Selected Figures and Tables	194	(6)
References	200	(15)
Index	215