Book Review: What’s the Worst That Could Happen? By Andew Leigh

How can societies best deal with risks that are potentially catastrophic? Andrew Leigh, an Australian politician, seeks to answer this question by exploring what he believes are the biggest existential risks facing humanity—pandemics, climate change, nuclear weapons, and artificial intelligence. His argument is that private people tend to underestimate the odds of extreme events, especially those that may occur in the future, and their magnitude. Well-functioning governments, therefore, are necessary to fill the gap through well-designed policies that take account of these risks both in the immediate term and in the long term. The rise of populism, however, threatens the effectiveness of government to respond to these threats while posing a direct threat to democracy.

Read the full review here.