While ‘risk’ has mainly been analysed as an either sociological or managerial concept, less attention has been paid to its functions as a guiding principle of political governance and its diverging meanings in a comparative approach. This paper looks at the nuclear energy policy change in Germany and France after Fukushima with a special focus on the role and relation of experts and political leaders. Through systematic process tracing and semi-structured interviews, I will show that, in spite of a diverging energy policy tradition, both countries’ reactions to Fukushima are guided by a common pattern in the decision-making process. Both reject ‘rationalising’ approaches, such as risk governance, and reaffirm the political responsibility of the executive in the wake of the crisis, which leads to a similar turn in the political discourse and a limited policy change after Fukushima.
