TY - JOUR
AU - Brooks, Harvey
AB - The Resolution of Technically Intensive Public Policy Disputes Harvey Brooks One of the basic problems in resolving public differen-ces-areoften manifested ..---- in the -- wy-each - policy issues with high scientific or technical side present_s“!he same *data. A classic example is content is what to do when the experts disagree. tFZXb>G, just prior to the atmospheric test ban How can the politicians or the public tell which treaty of 1963, over the effects of nuclear bomb experts to believe? testing fallout. Those who favored testing ex- One could argue, perhaps, that technical issues pressed health damage estimates in terms of the become significant in public policy disagreements increased chances of cancer for an individual ex- only when uncertainties in the data and evidence posed to fallout. Expressed as a fraction, such admit of a wide range of policy outcomes or pref- increases were miniscule. The critics of testing, erences. Smallpox vaccination or polio immuni- however, often expressed the identical facts in zations, for example, ceased to be significant public terms of the extra deaths that would occur world- policy issues once there was a scientific consensus wide within a period of fifty years (or even over on their effectiveness 
TI - The Resolution of Technically Intensive Public Policy Disputes
JF - Science, Technology, & Human Values
DO - 10.1177/016224398400900106
DA - 1984-01-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/sage/the-resolution-of-technically-intensive-public-policy-disputes-1s6tZCtDD5
SP - 39
EP - 50
VL - 9
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -