Improving Government Decision-making Practices for Risk Management

Conventional risks, such as environmental degradation, tend to take on new dimensions due to increasingly extreme weather conditions, growing geographical concentration of populations and wealth, etc. Emerging issues, such as new diseases, biotechnologies, bio-terrorism, are occurring, many of which are characterised by extreme uncertainty and the possibility of extensive harm. Government capacity to adjust to traditional and new risks seems increasingly challenged by modern complexities, while at the same time people seem more ready to accept risk resulting from “private” decisions rather than those resulting from “public” decisions (for example most consumers seem ready to assume the uncertainty resulting from the use of cellular phones or pharmaceuticals).