The Decline of Deference: The Political Context of Risk Communication

Abstract

Risk communication is seen as an important adjunct to the process of siting locally noxious facilities. To understand how risk communication might function in such a process, one needs to understand the political context that gives rise to public opposition to such facilities in the first place. This analysis draws on a variety of data to describe the decline of deference, a situation in which a hostile and alienated public is mobilized primarily through ad hoc voluntary organizations, and is increasingly reluctant to defer important decisions to institutional elites. Risk communication programs must be designed to offset the trends that result in the decline of deference. This conclusion differs markedly from the conventional wisdom that risk communication is merely a device for providing information to citizens so sthat they may make more rational decisions. ~~

The changing nature of communication and regulation of risk in Europe

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Hazardous waste management and community involvement in Canada: the case of Montreal's rural-urban fringe

“…Compensation appears to be clearly less effective than reducing the impacts (Zeiss and Atwater, 1987;1989, Zeiss, 1991.…”

“…'Chemophobia has gripped society' (Kunreuther and Patrick, 1991, p. 15). The loss in confidence in industrialists can be partly attributed to their inability to operate facilities satisfactorily; for elected representatives it is related to their inability to regulate and then apply their regulations (Laird, 1989).…”

Regulatory Measures for Enhancing Public Participation in Strategic Environmental Assessment: Lessons Learnt from Taiwan

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