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The Promise And Peril Of Paternalistic Approaches To Flood Risk, Alexander B. Lemann

University of Colorado Law Review

Our country's ever-growing exposure to flood risk has been the target of policy reform for decades. To many experts, it is clear that we must stop subsidizing flood-prone development and begin the process of moving people away from flood-prone areas. And yet, despite the seemingly obvious benefits of abandoning areas that will be permanently underwater in a generation, flood-prone living has been a difficult habit to kick.

Examining the problem against the background of the philosophical literature on paternalism helps show why. Paternalism- government intervention in people's choices for the good of those same people-has long been controversial. The insistence …