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THE FALSE PROMISES OF RISK ANALYSIS
Author(s) -
Hansson Sven Ove
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
ratio
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-9329
pISSN - 0034-0006
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9329.1993.tb00049.x
Subject(s) - technocracy , risk analysis (engineering) , politics , democracy , political science , positive economics , epistemology , business , sociology , economics , law , philosophy
The relatively new discipline of risk analysis promises to provide objective guidance in some of the most controversial issues in modern high‐technology societies. Four conditions are discussed that must be satisfied for this promise to be fulfilled. Since none of these conditions is satisfied, risk analysis does not keep its promise. In its attempts to reduce genuinely political issues to technocratic calculations, it neglects many of the factors that should influence decisions on risk acceptance. A list of tentative guidelines is given for numerical decision support that encourages democratic decision‐making instead of trying to evade it.