Devolved regulation as a two-stage rocket to public acceptance of experiments with human gametes and embryos: A UK example to be followed by the Netherlands?

Kazancigil endorses governance to the extent that it has a greater capacity to cope with policy making on complex issues in our differentiated societies. At the same time, he is skeptical of how governance excludes ‘politics’ from the process of policy-making. Policy fields that are highly dependent on scientific knowledge are considered by him to be especially vulnerable for ‘policy making without politics’. In this article, the case of UK policy making concerning the creation of human animal hybrid embryos will be analyzed to provide insights into the problems that can be connected to governance as form of managing public decision making. In this case, it is not so much the exclusion of ‘politics’ in the sense of ‘the representative democratic institutions and processes’ that appears to be the problem of governance but rather the downplaying of differences in societal views concerning the issue and the lack of real reconciliation of such views.