ABSTRACT
The basic aim should be to provide information to those concerned, to promote and participate in a constructive public debate in a wide circle of institutions, thereby strengthening the democratic process through increased public understanding of, and involvement in, the process of change. In addition to overcoming constitutional and partisan hurdles, the concept of technology assessment had to evolve beyond its original formulations to find intellectual acceptance in Europe. The broadened approach to technology assessment is clearly more suited to the role of parliaments than the more policy specific and technically oriented OTA model. The Office Parlementaire d’Evaluation des Choix Scientifiques et Technologiques (OPECST) is to break the monopoly of scientific information enjoyed by the executive offices and the large technological institutes, and to furnish parliament with sufficient information to evaluate and formulate technology policy itself. The Bundestag’s fledgling TA apparatus is perhaps the most promising in Europe and might well provide the model for the future.
