The Government of Risk

Understanding Risk Regulation Regimes

Christopher Hood, Henry Rothstein, and Robert Baldwin

Well received in hardback
Well-known and respected authors
Multi-disciplinary approach to a hot topic

The Government of Risk

Understanding Risk Regulation Regimes

Christopher Hood, Henry Rothstein, and Robert Baldwin

Description

Why does regulation vary so dramatically from one area to another? Why are some risks regulated aggressively and others responded to only modestly? Is there any logic to the techniques we use in risk regulation? These key questions are explored in The Government of Risk. This book looks at a number of risk regulation regimes, considers the respects in which they differ, and examines how these differences can be justified.

Analyzing regulation in terms of 'regimes' allows us to see the rich, multi-dimensional nature of risk regulation. It exposes the thinness of society-wide analyses of risk controls and it offers a perspective that single case studies cannot reach. Regimes analysis breaks down the components of risk regulation systems and shows how they interact. It also shows how different parts of the same regime may be shaped by different factors and have to be explained and understood in quite different ways. The Government of Risk shows how such an approach is of high policy relevance as well as of considerable theoretical importance.

The Government of Risk

Understanding Risk Regulation Regimes

Christopher Hood, Henry Rothstein, and Robert Baldwin

List of Figures
List of Tables
Section 1: Introducing Risk Regulation Regime
1: What are Risk Regulation Regimes? Why do they Matter?
2: The Comparative Anatomy of Risk Regulation Regimes
3: Nine Risk Regulation Regimes Compared
Section 2: Expanding Variation in Risk Regulation Regimes
4: How far does Context Shape Content in Risk Regulation Regimes?
5: Exploring the 'Market Failure' Hypothesis
6: Opinion-Response Government and Risk Regulation
7: Interests, Lobbies, and Experts
8: Regime Content and Context Revisited: An Overall Picture
Section 3: Exploring the Dynamics of Risk Regulation Regimes
9: Regime Development Under Pressure: Staged Retreats and Lateral Mutations
10: The Regime Perspective in Risk Regulation: Implications for Policy and Institutional Design
Appendixes
References
Index

The Government of Risk

Understanding Risk Regulation Regimes

Christopher Hood, Henry Rothstein, and Robert Baldwin

Author Information

Christopher Hood, Gladstone Professor of Government and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, Henry Rothstein, Research Fellow, ESRC Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation, London School of Economics, and Robert Baldwin, Professor of Law, London School of Economics

The Government of Risk

Understanding Risk Regulation Regimes

Christopher Hood, Henry Rothstein, and Robert Baldwin

Reviews and Awards

Review from previous edition Full of insights. The classification scheme set out in the book will serve anyone involved in practical institutional design well beyond the specific examples it presents. - Political Studies

The Government of Risk is a significant contribution to the exisiting literature on risk regulation... a first... step towards a satisfactory comparative analysis of risk regulation schemes. - West European Politics

Sweeping in the breadth of [its] academic scholarship... The Government of Risk [is] sure to have an enduring impact on the debate. - Public Law

The Government of Risk is an important book, and perhaps a major one, for several reasons... This volume both brings some of the best developed resources of political science and public administration studies to bear upon issues of risk, from which both the field of risk scholarship and political science can only benefit.... In grounding this cross-disciplinary framework clearly in theory, the book presents future researchers with an invaluable book. - PERRI 6