Abstract
This essay compares and contrasts important attributes of the use of scientific knowledge and judgment in regulatory decisions in the United States and West Germany. It decribes the broader historical context for such decisions in each country. Although the system in America exhibits considerable conflict and assumption of adversarial positions, it is argued that a more fundamental attribute of the system is that policy decisions are reviewed according to rules of evidence and its interpretation. Similarly, although the German system involves a great deal of consultation, a more fundamental aspect of policy decisions there is that of the determination of the social obligation to act. In the United States, it is more important that a decisionmaker has properly developed and interpreted the evidence than that he or she has consulted with all the relevant parties. In Germany, the order of importance of the two is reversed.
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Based on seminars given in Berlin in December 1984 at the International Institute for Environment and Society of the Science Center Berlin and in Washington, DC in January 1985 at the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences.
The author, a National Research Council Fellow, wishes to thank his colleagues in Berlin and Washington for their comments, many of which have been integrated into this essay. The ideas presented here, however, remain the responsibility of the author.
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Coppock, R. Interactions between scientists and public officials: A comparison of the use of science in regulatory programs in the United States and West Germany. Policy Sci 18, 371–390 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00135920
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00135920