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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2012

Cass R. Sunstein
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Summary

This is a book about fear, democracy, rationality, and the law. Sometimes people are fearful when they ought not to be, and sometimes they are fearless when they should be frightened. In democratic nations, the law responds to people's fears. As a result, the law can be led in unfortunate and even dangerous directions. The problem cuts across countless substantive areas, including global warming, genetic engineering, nuclear power, biodiversity, pesticides, blood transfusions, food safety, cloning, toxic chemicals, crime, and even terrorism and efforts to combat it. “Risk panics” play a large role in groups, cities, and even nations.

DELIBERATION AND THEORY

How should a democratic government respond to public fear? What is the connection between fear on the one hand and law and policy on the other? I suggest that these questions are best approached if we keep two general ideas in mind. The first is that well-functioning governments aspire to be deliberative democracies. They are accountable to the public, to be sure; they hold periodic elections and require officials to pay close attention to the popular will. Responsiveness to public fear is, in this sense, both inevitable and desirable. But responsiveness is complemented by a commitment to deliberation, in the form of reflection and reason giving. If the public is fearful about a trivial risk, a deliberative democracy does not respond by reducing that risk. It uses its own institutions to dispel public fear that is, by hypothesis, without foundation.

Type
Chapter
Information
Laws of Fear
Beyond the Precautionary Principle
, pp. 1 - 10
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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  • Introduction
  • Cass R. Sunstein, University of Chicago
  • Book: Laws of Fear
  • Online publication: 05 September 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511790850.001
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  • Introduction
  • Cass R. Sunstein, University of Chicago
  • Book: Laws of Fear
  • Online publication: 05 September 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511790850.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Cass R. Sunstein, University of Chicago
  • Book: Laws of Fear
  • Online publication: 05 September 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511790850.001
Available formats
×