Closure

Abstract

In this book we place the management of public risks into the broader context of social policy in the service of the public good. We present a unified foundation for strategic management of risk in the form of four principles. Together these principles reflect some necessary general attributes of the quality of life in a modern state: public accountability, maximum net benefit for all, compensation for those who lose when there is change, and long life in good health with maximum personal choice. These principles form the basis of the life quality method of risk management, which we develop to operational level and illustrate by several examples drawn from engineering and public health practice. We have advanced the concept of the societal capacity to commit resources as a constraint in the decisionmaking process, recognizing that our desire to enhance life quality is limited by our capacity to create the wealth.