The Politics of Precaution: Regulating Health, Safety, and Environmental Risks in Europe and the United States

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The Politics of Precaution examines the politics of consumer and environmental risk regulation in the United States and Europe over the last five decades, explaining why America and Europe have often regulated a wide range of similar risks differently. It finds that between 1960 and 1990, American health, safety, and environmental regulations were

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Winner of the 2012 ONE Best Book Award, Organizations and the Natural Environment Division of the Academy of Management Winner of the 2013 Levine Prize, Research Committee on the Structure of Government of the International Political Science Association Winner of the 2014 Lynton Keith Caldwell Prize, Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics Section of the American Political Science Association "The Politics of Precaution was an engaging and well researched work which raises fascinating questions about comparative policy change."--Natalie Beinisch, LSE Politics and Policy blog "Vogel has written extensively on the politics of risk regulation over the past two decades, and this monograph affords him the opportunity to update, qualify, and amend previous examinations. The result is a fruitful analysis of changes to transatlantic policy making regarding genetically engineered food, chemicals in the environment, air toxics, and consumer product safety."--Choice "In this engaging book, Vogel argues that extreme conservatives in the United States have brought regulatory innovation to a standstill, aided by decentralized and gridlocked U.S. political institutions... [The Politics of Precaution] should be required reading for businesspeople, officials, and citizens interested in the role of government in the modern world."--Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs "Vogel's study is a very valuable and unusual contribution to the literature of regulation, raising important questions, and correlating the important question of the relationship between systems of governance and the efficacy of regulation."--Susan J. Tolchin, World Medical & Health Policy "Once again, David Vogel has given us an important book. It offers a provocative empirical phenomenon and the depth and breadth of Vogel's analysis rewards the patient and careful reader... [T]he book shows the importance of social and political factors in shaping the business environment. It's a vital text for business strategy and comparative public policy scholars and a rewarding one for nearly everyone else."--Matthew Potoski, Perspectives on Politics "This work deserves a place with Vogel's earlier and highly influential works ... as well as with works of other major figures in the field... It tells a more complex and perhaps less certain story of our risky times, but it captures important dynamics around how policy makers confront the new risks our ever-developing economies have thrown at us."--Kate O'Neill, Review of Policy Research

Author Bio

David Vogel is professor at the Haas School of Business and in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His books include The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility.