Safe and Sorry? From the Risk Society to the Anxiety Society via the Precautionary Principle
(2007)Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- The precautionary principle is a judicial version of the common sense notion of "better safe than sorry". It may well be the most innovative and noteworthy new concept in environmental policy over the last twenty years, but I would also say it may well be one of the most dangerous, irresponsible and arbitrary guiding rules. It was first adopted in environmental law but has now spread to other areas and the European Commission states; "[..] in practice, its scope is much wider [..]". The purpose of this paper is to show the dangers of imposing the principle on the areas of terrorism and immigration. The alternative costs of applying the principle are derogation of civil liberties, retrenchment of human rights, staggering democratic... (More)
- The precautionary principle is a judicial version of the common sense notion of "better safe than sorry". It may well be the most innovative and noteworthy new concept in environmental policy over the last twenty years, but I would also say it may well be one of the most dangerous, irresponsible and arbitrary guiding rules. It was first adopted in environmental law but has now spread to other areas and the European Commission states; "[..] in practice, its scope is much wider [..]". The purpose of this paper is to show the dangers of imposing the principle on the areas of terrorism and immigration. The alternative costs of applying the principle are derogation of civil liberties, retrenchment of human rights, staggering democratic procedures, loss of lives and important technology and false security. Most importantly, however, is the cost of anxiety in society. We are now moving from a risk society to an anxiety society via the precautionary principle. The thesis will show how the precautionary principle, anxiety, risk perception and worst-case scenario are all linked together. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1319391
- author
- Hazard, Maria
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2007
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Precautionary principle, Worst-case scenario, Risk perception, Alternative costs, The anxiety society, Political and administrative sciences, Statsvetenskap, förvaltningskunskap
- language
- English
- id
- 1319391
- date added to LUP
- 2008-01-07 00:00:00
- date last changed
- 2008-01-30 00:00:00
@misc{1319391,
abstract = {{The precautionary principle is a judicial version of the common sense notion of "better safe than sorry". It may well be the most innovative and noteworthy new concept in environmental policy over the last twenty years, but I would also say it may well be one of the most dangerous, irresponsible and arbitrary guiding rules. It was first adopted in environmental law but has now spread to other areas and the European Commission states; "[..] in practice, its scope is much wider [..]". The purpose of this paper is to show the dangers of imposing the principle on the areas of terrorism and immigration. The alternative costs of applying the principle are derogation of civil liberties, retrenchment of human rights, staggering democratic procedures, loss of lives and important technology and false security. Most importantly, however, is the cost of anxiety in society. We are now moving from a risk society to an anxiety society via the precautionary principle. The thesis will show how the precautionary principle, anxiety, risk perception and worst-case scenario are all linked together.}},
author = {{Hazard, Maria}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Safe and Sorry? From the Risk Society to the Anxiety Society via the Precautionary Principle}},
year = {{2007}},
}