The Quality of Stakeholder-Based Decisions: Lessons from the Case Study Record

The increased use of stakeholder processes in environmental decisionmaking has raised concerns that the inherently “political” nature of such processes may sacrifice substantive quality for political expediency. In particular, there is concern that good science will not be used adequately in stakeholder processes nor be reflected in their decision outcomes. This paper looks to the case study record to examine the quality of the outcomes of stakeholder efforts and the scientific and technical resources stakeholders use. The data for the analysis come from a “case survey,” in which researchers coded information on over 100 attributes of 239 published case studies of stakeholder involvement in environmental decisionmaking. These cases reflect a diversity of planning, management, and implementation activities carried out by environmental and natural resource agencies at many levels of government. Overall, the case study record suggests that there should be little concern that stakeholder processes are resulting in low quality decisions. The majority of cases contained evidence of stakeholders improving decisions over the status quo; adding new information, ideas, and analysis; and having adequate access to technical and scientific resources. Processes that stressed consensus scored higher on substantive quality measures than those that did not. Indeed, the data suggested interesting relationships between the more “political” aspects of stakeholder decisionmaking, such as consensus building, and the quality of decisions.

The Benefits and Costs of Environmental Information Disclosure: What Do We Know About Right to Know?

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies removed information from their websites that they feared could invite attacks on critical public and private infrastructure. Accordingly, the benefits and costs of environmental information disclosure programs have come under increasing scrutiny. This paper provides a framework for examining these benefits and costs, and illustrates the framework through three brief case studies of information disclosure programs: risk management planning, materials accounting, and the Sector Facility Indexing Program. The paper closes by using these three cases to outline what we know and still need to find out about information disclosure programs.disclosure, Toxics Release Inventory, risk management planning, materials accounting, Sector Facility Indexing Project, right-to-know

From Uruguay to Doha: Agricultural Trade Negotiations at the World Trade Organization

This paper examines current agricultural trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization, with particular attention to the relationship between liberalization and developing countries’ economic growth and food security. Agriculture remains one of the most highly protected arenas of international trade. The cost of such protection falls particularly hard on developing countries, where agriculture typically accounts for a much higher share of economic output, exports, and employment than in developed countries. Although the 1994 Uruguay Round of trade talks succeeded in bringing agriculture into the rules-based trading system, it did little to actually reduce agricultural trade protection. This paper describes how three important actors in the agricultural trading system—the United States, the European Union, and developing countries—are positioning themselves in the current talks to deal with the unfinished business from the Uruguay Round.trade, agriculture, World Trade Organization (WTO), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

Public Participation in Environmental Decisions: An Evaluation Framework Using Social Goals

This paper presents a framework for evaluating mechanisms that involve the public in environmental decision-making. These include traditional participatory mechanisms--such as public hearings, notice and comment procedures, and advisory committees--as well as those considered more innovative--such as regulatory negotiations, mediations, and citizen juries. The framework is based on a set of "social goals," defined as those goals which are valued outcomes of a participatory process, but which transcend the immediate interests of any party in that process. The goals are: educating the public, incorporating public values and knowledge into decision-making, building trust, reducing conflict, and assuring cost-effective decision-making. The paper begins with a discussion of the need for an evaluative framework which 1) identifies the strengths and weaknesses of a number of different participatory mechanisms, 2) is "objective" in the sense of not taking the perspective of any one party to a decision, and 3) measures tangible outcomes. Section One presents the social goals framework as an approach for meeting these objectives. It illustrates how the framework can be applied to one case study in environmental decision-making: the performance of the Restoration Advisory Board at the Fort Ord military base in California. In Section Two, we contrast the social goals framework with two alternative approaches to evaluation, one based on participatory processes and one based on stakeholder interests. We find that, while useful for answering some questions about public involvement, these two approaches fail to meet all three objectives and may miss important information about the success of a particular participatory effort. In Section Three we take a closer look at participatory mechanisms and discusses how each is likely to perform against the various social goals.

Discussing the Rules: Electronic Rulemaking and Democratic Deliberation

Of all recent efforts to transform the federal bureaucracy through the use of information technology, electronic rulemaking holds the most potential for enhancing the role of the public in policymaking. In its more expansive formulation, electronic rulemaking would allow citizens to learn about proposed regulations on the Web, comment on them electronically, read comments by others, and even discuss relevant issues with fellow citizens and agency staff. This paper outlines what we should expect from public involvement in electronic rulemaking, concluding that its promise lies in embedding democratic deliberation into administrative decisionmaking. The current move to put rulemaking dockets online, while important, is likely to fall short of electronic rulemaking’s potential. For important rules, electronic dockets should be supplemented with electronic dialogues, which support and encourage iterative discussions.rulemaking, public participation, electronic democracy, electronic dockets, deliberation, e-government

Electronic Democracy and Environmental Governance: A Survey of the States

Just as information technology is rapidly changing how we work, shop, and play, it is changing how we practice democracy. This paper focuses on one area where the Internet is broadening public participation in governance: the administration of environmental laws and regulations. It describes a survey of how each of the 50 states is using the Internet to provide citizens with environmental information, gather public input on agency decisions, and foster networks of interested citizens. As "laboratories for democracy," the states may be the source of ideas and experience that anticipate how environmental governance at all levels of government will change over the next decade. The survey results suggest that electronic democracy in state-level environmental decisionmaking is in an early and experimental phase. All state environmental agencies have Web sites and most provide substantial amounts of information on-line. However, opportunities for active on-line interaction between citizens and government, as well as among citizens themselves, are quite limited. Relatively few states, for example, allow citizens to comment on proposed rules electronically. Overall, the survey suggests that it is a good time for states to learn from each other as more innovative states push the envelope of what technology allows and more cautious states continue to adopt basic features as decision-makers become convinced of their efficacy.

Public Participation in Environmental Planning in the Great Lakes Region

The need for greater public involvement in environmental decision-making has been highlighted in recent high-profile research reports and emphasized by leaders at all levels of government. In some cases, agencies have opened the door to greater participation in their programs. However, there is relatively little information on what can be gained from greater public involvement and what makes some programs work while others fail. This paper addresses these questions through an evaluation of public participation in environmental planning efforts in the Great Lakes region. The success of participation is measured using five criteria: educating participants, improving the substantive quality of decisions, incorporating public values into decision-making, reducing conflict, and building trust. The paper then discusses the relationship between success and a number of contextual and procedural attributes of a variety of cases. Data come from a "case survey," in which the authors systematically extract information from previously published studies of 30 individual participation cases. The authors conclude that public participation can accomplish important societal goals and that success depends, in large part, on the actions and commitment of government agencies.

The Federal Advisory Committee Act and Public Participation in Environmental Policy

This paper discusses the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and how it affects public participation in environmental decision-making. Passed in 1972 as one of the "openness in government" laws, FACA governs how the federal government seeks outside advice. It has had a profound influence on who participates in government decision-making, when they participate, how they participate, and what influence participation has on policy. FACA has had a number of notable successes. Primary among these has been its role in limiting the unbalanced influence of special interests, acting through advisory committees, on public policy-making. The advisory committees which the law governs have also achieved a number of the "social goals" of public participation, including: (1) educating the public, (2) bringing public values into government decision-making, (3) improving the substantive quality of decisions, (4) increasing trust in government institutions, and (5) reducing conflict. Often, advisory committees have given government relatively inexpensive access to experts and stakeholders in order to achieve these goals. However, FACA has also created�directly and indirectly�a number of "chilling effects" on public participation in environmental decision-making. First are procedural requirements which make it difficult for groups outside of government to become advisory committees, and thereby gain access to decision-making. Second are ambiguities in the law and its regulations which limit the willingness of public agencies to engage the public outside of FACA. And third are Clinton Administration policies which limit the number of advisory committees that agencies are allowed to establish. Taken together, these chilling effects create a paradox wherein agencies are reluctant to engage the public in decision-making outside of FACA but significant barriers keep groups (and agencies) from forming advisory committees under the Act. The paper concludes by recommending a streamlining of FACA's procedural requirements, a clarification of regulations and policies regarding what type of participation falls under FACA, and an elimination of administrative ceilings on advisory committee formation.

Evaluating Dispute Resolution as an Approach to Public Participation

Public participation has become an integral part of environmental policymaking. Dispute resolution—with its focus on deliberation, problem solving, and consensus seeking among a small group of people—is one of the alternatives decisionmakers increasingly turn to for involving the public. This paper evaluates dispute resolution as a form of public participation by measuring its success against five “social goals”: incorporating public values into decisions, increasing the substantive quality of decisions, resolving conflict, building trust, and educating the public. The data for the analysis come from a “case survey,” in which researchers read and coded information on more than 100 attributes of 239 published case studies of public involvement in environmental decisionmaking. These cases describe a variety of planning, management, and implementation activities carried out by environmental and natural resource agencies at many levels of government. The paper demonstrates that dispute resolution processes typically do much better than other forms of public participation in achieving social goals, but only among the small group of actual participants. The dispute resolution cases do far worse in extending the benefits of participation to the wider public. Many dispute resolution cases lack significant outreach, either to inform the wider public or to draw the wider public’s values into decisionmaking. The benefits of conflict resolution or trust formation also often do not extend beyond a small group of participants. The findings have normative implications for the desirability of dispute resolution in certain types of environmental decisions. They also have practical implications because the exclusion of the wider public from decisionmaking can come back to haunt project proponents in the implementation stage.dispute resolution, public participation, conflict resolution, evaluation