Present challenges to risk governance

Abstract

The purpose of this short paper is to present the main challenges to risk governance in the today democratic context. The first part describes briefly the main characteristics of the approach to collective decision-making grounded on the scientific rationality, dominant in Europe for about two centuries. The second part describes the current difficulties encountered by the traditional decision-making processes when confronted with complex situations in area such as risk management but also in the management of other collective issues such as unemployment or urban violence. This description is notably based on the conclusions of the TRUSTNET European concerted action on risk governance issued in 2000. From the interdisciplinary analysis of some 11 detailed case studies of diversified risk governance contexts, the concerted action conclusions propose a model of the existing patterns of risk governance. The emergence of new co-operative processes of decision-making (Mutual Trust Paradigm) is reported in contexts where the traditional approach of collective decision-making are meeting difficulties. The third part of the paper describes the profound changes required by the adoption of co-operative decision-making processes and the main conditions for their development in the future.