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zxcvzPOL 523 – Summary and Discussion Questions 10.25.22 Sarah Starks, Eve Pennington, Jen Arata Cass R. Sunstein, The Cost-Benefit Revolution, ch. 1-5 Sunstein introduces the Cost-Benefit Revolution as a shift over the last 50 years promoting the principle that “no action may be taken unless the benefits justify the costs” (3). He examines key players in the Revolution, including President Reagan and President Clinton’s executive orders, which explicitly state that benefits should outweigh costs when weighing policy options, as well as John Stuart Mill’s utilitarian approach to decision-making (7, 22). He addresses how cost- benefit language can be a useful way to neutralize information when performing cost-benefit analyses. He introduces the importance of the Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) to understanding costs and benefits of otherwise unappraisable factors, like welfare and risks, and advocates for assigning different VSL to different people (49) To examine complex cost-benefit analysis situations, Sunstein presents “easy cases” and “hard cases,” advising that easy cases use WTP directly whereas hard cases may require further consideration with respect to the distribution of benefits and costs to different groups of people (66). In The Cost-Benefit Revolution, Sunstein emphasizes the importance of relying on facts over ethical values when making decisions regarding government policy. While Sunstein’s work goes to support this was of thinking, cost- benefit analysis can become quite complicated and controvertible. Discussion Questions  Sunstein asserts that “cost-benefit analysis has the great virtue of explaining why some decisions are difficult – and of forcing officials and others to ask the right questions” (25). Is this a fair evaluation of cost-benefit analysis? Is it convincing that cost-benefit analysis forces the right questions to arise?  How are populism and technocratism different? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?  Sunstein presents the availability heuristic, informational cascades, and system neglect and system neglect as barriers to accurate or authentic decision-making. Are there any instances when natural human biases may be valuable to decision-making?  What are some benefits of using cost-benefit analysis? What are some drawbacks?  Do you agree or disagree with The Cost-Benefit Revolution’s general consensus that society should rely on fact over feeling or ethical values when making policy decisions?  Sunstein argues that WTP may be righteous in treating people as consumers first and citizens second because consumer preferences “are a product of reflection, even if choosers are simply acting as consumers” (58). Is this a correct evaluation?  Are there any issues that cost-benefit analysis should not be used?  What other analysis methods do you think could be argued to be more effective than cost- benefit analysis?

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