Hazardous Waste Policy Mangement - Institutional Dimensions. Chapter 5. Government Responsibility for Risk: The Bavarian and Hessian Hazardous Waste Disposal Systems

This paper has been produced as part of IIASA's hazardous waste management work, which is the main component of the Institutional Settings and Environmental Policies project. The overall aim of this work, reflected in this paper, is to systematize our understanding of interactions between institutional and technical factors in policy making and implementation. The influence of institutional processes upon technical knowledge built into policy has been increasingly recognized. However, it has yet to be adequately clarified in comparative research on different regulatory systems. Institutional structures cannot be easily transplanted from one culture to another. Nevertheless, through the normal flux of policy, institutional development slowly occurs anyway, in more or less ad hoc fashion. Comparative insight may help to direct reflection and adaptation in more deliberate and constructive ways. This paper forms one draft chapter of an intended book on hazardous waste management. The reader will therefore notice references to other draft chapters in this study which are also being circulated separately, and which are available from IIASA. At this stage the papers are drafts, and are not intended for publication in present form. They are being circulated for review and revision