Spaces of polynomials with roots of bounded multiplicity

We describe an alternative approach to some results of Vassiliev on spaces of polynomials, by using the scanning method which was used by Segal in his investigation of spaces of rational functions. We explain how these two approaches are related by the Smale-Hirsch Principle or the h-Principle of Gromov. We obtain several generalizations, which may be of interest in their own right.