The risks at the heart of regulation are most often understood as unwanted by-products of an essentially productive endeavor. They are to be captured and managed through dedicated technical and bureaucratic effort, the preserve of those skilled in the assessment of probability and impact and accomplished in the design of effective—and efficient—regulatory strategies. Yet such a view seriously misunderstands the complexity of risk that regulation must address. When regulation is viewed from a social and organizational vantage point, risks of a more social and political character emerge. This article teases apart three fundamental ideal types of risk inherent in regulatory processes, only one of which (labeled as actuarial risk) is apprehensible from a scientific or bureaucratic frame of reference. Of equal importance are sociocultural and political risks, risks that cannot be relegated to a lesser priority by an understanding that labels their impact on regulation variously as unwarranted, irrational, or emotional.
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