This open access book is about mismanagement of public agencies as a threat to life and limb. Collapsing bridges and buildings kill people and often leave many more injured. Such disasters do not happen out of the blue nor are they purely technical in nature since construction and maintenance are subject to safety regulation and enforcement by governmental agencies. This book analyses four relevant cases from Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Germany. Arguing that, while preventing disaster through public oversight is essentially easy, the difficult part for public officials and private contractors and consultants alike is to resist incentives that threaten professional skills and standards. Rather than stressing well-known pathologies of bureaucracy as a potential source of disaster, this book argues, learning for the sake of prevention should aim at neutralizing threats to integrity and strengthening a sense of responsibility among public officials.

Wolfgang Seibel is Professor of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz, and an Adjunct Professor of Public Administration at the Hertie School in Berlin, Germany. His new book is an outcome of the research project Black Swans in Public Administration: Rare Organizational Failure with Severe Consequences funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

1. Introduction: Black Swans and Sinatra Inferences.- 2. Evaporated Responsibility: The Collapse of the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne on 15 October 1970.- 3. Intended Ignorance: The Collapse of the I-35 W Mississippi River Bridge on 1 August 2007.- 4. Erosion of Professional Integrity: The Collapse of the Canterbury TV Building in Christchurch on 22 February 2011.- 5. Politicization of the Non-Politicizable: The Collapse of the Ice Skating Rink in Bad Reichenhall on 2 January 2006.- 6. Conclusion: Strategic Learning and Situational High Reliability.