Democracy, Risk, and Community

Richard Hiskes explores the connection between technological risk and basic concepts of liberal political theory and practice. Arguing that modern risks are emergent and therefore not reducible to individual actors or events, he demonstrates how risks challenge the most basic concepts of liberal theory and politics, including the ideas of consent, authority, rights, and responsibility. He claims that a communitarian conception of politics is best suited to the creation of policy on issues of technological risk, because of the collective nature of the risks in question.