The Political Leeway in Policymaking: From Neurathian Underdetermination to the Precautionary Principle

Abstract

In this paper, I propose and develop the Auxiliary Principle (AP), which states that given the endemic uncertainty in policymaking, decision-makers always have political leeway in their choices, and that they should acknowledge it as such. First, I explain the ideas of Otto Neurath, whose writings on decision-making in conditions of epistemic uncertainty and his proposal of an auxiliary motive inspired my AP. Next, I explain the AP in-depth, including what its purpose is in decision-making under uncertainty, how it opens up a space for political discussion, and how it meets the political risk of false certainty. Finally, I argue that the AP can be a useful substitution for the popular Precautionary Principle at the meta-level while preserving its risk-averse intuitions. I use the controversy around the regulation of the AstraZeneca vaccine for Covid-19 to illustrate my arguments.