Law Commons^™

The Perils Of A Half-Built Bridge: Risk Perception, Shifting Majorities, And The Nuclear Power Debat, Amanda Leiter

Amanda Leiter

Much of the risk perception literature relies on the important but unstated assumption that manipulating public opinion to conform to scientific assessments of risk could help the public and, in turn, policymakers make better decisions about whether and how to regulate. This paper argues that the assumption fails in the context of certain “multilayered” risks, or risks that pose tiered policy choices – not just whether to regulate in the first instance, but how to respond to derivative risks arising from the first set of regulatory changes. Examining the debate about the role of nuclear power in the United States’ …