REFORMING RISK REGULATION

A commonly observed characteristic of risk regulation policy is the ab sence of coherent prioritization of risks and inconsistencies in the s tringency of controls on risks that are regulated. The purpose of this article is to examine the roots of this problem in the way both citiz ens and their elected representatives deal with uncertainties associat ed with catastrophic risks, why elected politicians respond to this pr oblem in constructing regulatory institutions that are prone to incons istency, and whether various proposals to reform the regulatory proces s would be likely to improve its performance. The main conclusions are that most reform proposals are strongly inconsistent with democratic responsiveness, which is the most important principle that elected off icials use in designing programs, and that the only plausible means fo r making regulatory policy more coherent is to increase the resources of regulatory agencies so as to give them greater control over the pub lic agenda in risk policy.