Societal issues in adopting life-cycle concepts within the political system

Abstract

The basis of all political systems is retention of power for those in office; this is true for democratic, representative, royalty and autocratic systems. Public perception of service to the public at large (at least those with influence) enhances this goal. As people tend to value immediate returns, the concept of optimal design selection based on life-cycle cost analysis is, therefore, fundamentally at odds with political systems. Instead, producing the most immediate benefit for the least cost is a natural inclination when designing public infrastructure such as bridges, transportation and other networks. Recognizing this conflict and developing procedures to enhance the acceptability of life-cycle costing will result in increased acceptance and use of this clearly optimal method. Several methods are suggested that will make life-cycle costing more consistent with political rewards. These include public forums to educate people on the increased long-term value of life-cycle costing, case studies of projects with different initial costs and maintenance, and a public infrastructure report that informs a community of the capital, operating, maintenance and risk costs of all infrastructure.

Keywords:

• Civil infrastructure
• Decision theory
• Life-cycle cost
• Risk
• Utility
• Uncertainty