Scientific expertise and regulatory politics in Germany: the formative period of handling risks by agreeing on “acceptable” standards, 1870-1913

Regulatory politics relates to issues such as “technical safety”, “environmental pollution”, “public health” etc. Problems of this kind involve conflicts of interested parties as well as the belief in science as a powerful resource for coping with these problems: The instrumentalist function of science seems to open a “best way” of administering risks; the legitimizing function of science helps to ensure acceptance of risks. The paper concentrates on the formative, period of the “science-based regulatory state” since the 1870s. Relying on case studies, regulatory politics based on science will be characterized as a bargaining process (in contrast to a technocratic model of applying science to political problems). Empirically, examples are treated for technical safety (steam-boiler control, materials testing) and for environmental hazards (sanitary and industrial pollution of rivers)