Norman J. Vig is Professor of Political Science and the Winifred and Atherton Bean Professor of Science, Technology and Society at Carleton College. He is coauthor or coeditor of several books including Technology and Politics, Environmental Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-first Century, and The Global Environment: Institutions, Law, and Policy. Herbert Paschen is Acting Director of the Technology Assessment Bureau of the German Parliament and former Director of the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis at the Research Center in Karlsruhe.

• ForewordPrefaceAcronymsPart One. Technology Assessment in the United States and Europe 1. Introduction: Technology Assessment in Comparative PerspectiveNorman J. Vig and Herbert Paschen2. Technology Assessment Units in the European Parliamentary SystemsThomas Petermann Part Two. Parliamentary Technology Assessment Institutions: Case Studies 3. Origins and Functions of the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and TechnologyMichael Norton4. The Technology Assessment Bureau of the German ParliamentHerbert Paschen5. France: Office Parlementaire d'Evaluation des Choix Scientifiques et TechnologiquesMaurice Laurent6. The Netherlands: Technology Assessment from Academically Oriented Analyses to Support of Public DebateJosée van Eijndhoven7. The Danish Board of TechnologyLars Klüver8. Parliamentary Technology Assessment by STOA at the European ParliamentDick Holdsworth Part Three. Cross-National Comparisons of Technology Assessment 9. Shaping the Information Revolution: The Information Superhighway and Parliamentary Technology AssessmentTodd M. La Porte10. Traffic Problems Go Through the Technology Assessment Machine: A Culturalist ComparisonRobert Hoppe and John Grin11. Participation in Parliamentary Technology Assessment: From Theory to PracticeSimon Joss Part Four. Summary and Conclusions 12. Conclusions: The European Parliamentary Technology Assessment ExperienceNorman J. VigContributorsInternet AddressesIndex

"…comprehensive … with excellent, thorough analyses." — Perspectives on Political Science"I learned a great deal about the politics, culture, and institutions of the five countries explored, both from the carefully done national case studies and the cross-national comparisons. I found it fascinating. It makes an important intellectual contribution to the study of comparative/European politics." — David Vogel, University of California, Berkeley