Patrick van Zwanenberg and Erik Millstone
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780198525813
- eISBN:
- 9780191723902
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198525813.001.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
This book presents a systematic analysis of how BSE policy was made in the UK and EU, 1986%#x2013;2004. The main focus is on the role of scientific expertise, advice, and evidence in policy-making ...
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This book presents a systematic analysis of how BSE policy was made in the UK and EU, 1986%#x2013;2004. The main focus is on the role of scientific expertise, advice, and evidence in policy-making processes, and its use by officials and ministers as a political resource. The central argument is that highly political and highly problematic policy decisions were often misrepresented as based on, and only on, sound science. Those tactics required the selective highlighting of scientific uncertainties. Since many of the most crucial policy-sensitive uncertainties were concealed or discounted, research to diminish those uncertainties was not undertaken. Since the claim had been that it was impossible for BSE-contaminated food to cause a human spongiform encephalopathy, when such cases emerged in 1996, the policy-making regime was comprehensively undermined and a crisis ensued. The BSE policy saga is used to develop and refine a general analytical framework with which science-based policy governance can be analysed, providing resources with which the book specifies the conditions under which such policy-making may achieve and reconcile scientific and democratic legitimacy.Less
This book presents a systematic analysis of how BSE policy was made in the UK and EU, 1986%#x2013;2004. The main focus is on the role of scientific expertise, advice, and evidence in policy-making processes, and its use by officials and ministers as a political resource. The central argument is that highly political and highly problematic policy decisions were often misrepresented as based on, and only on, sound science. Those tactics required the selective highlighting of scientific uncertainties. Since many of the most crucial policy-sensitive uncertainties were concealed or discounted, research to diminish those uncertainties was not undertaken. Since the claim had been that it was impossible for BSE-contaminated food to cause a human spongiform encephalopathy, when such cases emerged in 1996, the policy-making regime was comprehensively undermined and a crisis ensued. The BSE policy saga is used to develop and refine a general analytical framework with which science-based policy governance can be analysed, providing resources with which the book specifies the conditions under which such policy-making may achieve and reconcile scientific and democratic legitimacy.
Jon Agar
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719090981
- eISBN:
- 9781526115133
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719090981.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The Defence Research Committee (DRC) was the successor to the Defence Research Policy Committee (DRPC). This paper traces the history of the DRC and its influence on UK defence research programmes. ...
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The Defence Research Committee (DRC) was the successor to the Defence Research Policy Committee (DRPC). This paper traces the history of the DRC and its influence on UK defence research programmes. The DRC, like the DRPC, conducted major reviews of the defence research programme, balancing inter-service demands, responding to new strategic guidance, and searched for cuts as projects overran budgets and the national economy struggled. The DRC acted as gatekeeper, proceeding with some projects while ending others. The DRC paid attention to some topics that the DRPC had not, including the balance between civil and military research, the human sciences and Northern Ireland. Influential individuals, such as John Kendrew and Hermann Bondi, are identified. Finally the transition to the current defence advice structure, involving both the DRC and a new Defence Scientific Advisory Council (DSAC) is discussed.Less
The Defence Research Committee (DRC) was the successor to the Defence Research Policy Committee (DRPC). This paper traces the history of the DRC and its influence on UK defence research programmes. The DRC, like the DRPC, conducted major reviews of the defence research programme, balancing inter-service demands, responding to new strategic guidance, and searched for cuts as projects overran budgets and the national economy struggled. The DRC acted as gatekeeper, proceeding with some projects while ending others. The DRC paid attention to some topics that the DRPC had not, including the balance between civil and military research, the human sciences and Northern Ireland. Influential individuals, such as John Kendrew and Hermann Bondi, are identified. Finally the transition to the current defence advice structure, involving both the DRC and a new Defence Scientific Advisory Council (DSAC) is discussed.
