Managing Risks in the Public Interest

Vincent di Norcia is an associate professor of philosophy and business
ethics at Laurentian University.

This book argues for a utilitarian approach to public policy, one
expressed by the simple risk/benefit social calculus. In doing so, it
ignores the voluminous critiques of this approach in the literature. To
measure any social risk or benefit accurately, much less compare diverse
social risks, is a task riddled with difficulties. Increasing the life
expectancy of a population may be a worthy goal for public policy, but
achieving that goal is no simple matter. That the UN Human Development
Index (which is cited in this book) includes literacy and economic
growth suggests the actual complexity of public policy. Economic growth
is, moreover, not a reliable policy measure, as is shown by the
notoriously unequal distribution of wealth and income, and by
environmental critiques of the notion of growth itself. Indeed, even to
isolate any population’s life expectancy from international resource
scarcity and migration pressures is contentious.

Although their book makes good points about the costs of risk
reduction, the authors generalize beyond their data and venture naively
into treacherous social and political waters. Their stress on the basic
value of life itself is laudatory, but complex social policy questions
cannot be measured as simply as they pretend.

Finally, the authors, whose Institute for Risk Research has connections
with Ontario Hydro, downplay the international debate about the high
costs and environmental risks associated with nuclear reactors, and the
tendency of reactor management to gloss over operating problems and
incidents. Their book clearly would have benefited from vetting by an
independent publisher.