ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the special problems facing a modern policy maker. The union of science and technology has proved to be powerful and troublesome. Critics of the science and technology policy-making process do not dispute the value of using some kind of formal decision-making framework like that of risk-cost-benefit analysis. However, they assert that a problem arises concerning the assumptions policy makers typically make when applying this framework to science and technology issues. Public policy makers act only when they perceive potential problems that require new policy or modifications in established policy. Many science and technology policy decisions about events in new contexts or undocumented fields require the sophisticated but less reliable technique of theoretical modeling. The most extreme approach to public participation in science and technology policy would be for the public to undertake all stages of decision making.
