Society and policy maker’s responsibilities

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the responsibilities of the public sector in consumer-product governance. These responsibilities are first conceptualized in terms of ethical principles, focusing on autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. Next, policy criteria for oversight are examined as a way to operationalize these ethical principles. Two example sets of criteria, one from the U.S. government and another from a consumer advocacy group, are evaluated for similarities and differences in emphasis and underlying values. Both ethical principles and policy criteria are top-down ways of looking at the obligations of the public sector to consumers. In a more bottom-up approach, the fields of risk perception and social psychology are reviewed for insights into what consumers care about when it comes to consumer products and what these hopes and concerns imply for government obligations to consumers. As a case study, research on public attitudes towards food products manufactured using nanotechnology and biotechnology is presented to suggest what government agencies might do as a result of consumer desires. Finally, an emerging model for governance, responsible research and innovation (RRI), is described as one way to incorporate a greater variety of consumer values and desires into public-sector oversight of consumer products.