NCJ Number
193111
Date Published
2001
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This essay examines the special problems created for social control by advances in science and technology and offers general principles for addressing them, using the example of the failure of political, economic, and scientific institutions in the United States to reach agreement as to the best and safest means of disposing of the high-level nuclear waste that results from the generation of electric power by nuclear reactors.
Abstract
A major theme of this essay is that rapid social change, driven by science and technology, has created problems that are both technologically and politically intransigent, thus seemingly beyond the ability of societies to reach acceptable solutions by democratic means. The creation of "stakes in conformity" and the recognition of stakeholders in decision making processes is a necessary condition for successful control of the broad class of risks discussed in this essay. It is likely that new, intermediate institutions will be necessary to achieve adequate stakeholder representation. If they are to be successful, all institutions must enjoy a large measure of legitimacy. Institutional legitimacy, in turn, requires trust in the competence and the fiduciary responsibility of institutional policies and personnel. Harmful behavior by individuals, corporations, dissident groups, and even nation-states requires collective action on a far larger scale than has been the case in the past. Traditional distinctions between individual and corporate behavior defined as criminal, as well as the behavior of nations that once was considered to be beyond the purview of other nations, are changing rapidly. 10 notes and 55 references