Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Those living or
working in the
catchment
Those at
risk
elsewhere
in the
catchment
At risk in
the
particular
area
Those at risk of
flooding elsewhere in
the country
Other people in the
country
Fig. 18.2
Interests in riparian flood risk
management.
whether the government acted legitimately. It is
much less clear what legitimacymeans in an era of
organizations acting internationally (whether
those organizations are companies, international
agencies or NGOs) and of
the multiple interests. 'People-orientated' NGOs,
such as those concerned with a specific local
community, poverty alleviation or human rights,
clearly should be accountable to those whose
interests they claim to represent (Lloyd 2005).
More problematic are the NGOs that claim to
stand for the environment but lack a clear chain
of accountability beyond their members. There-
fore, stakeholder engagement raises another series
of difficult questions (Green 2003):
.
How representative are those involved?
.
What is the relationship between unelected
stakeholder groups and democratically elected
bodies?
.
Do the processes through which the stake-
holders reach a conclusion comply with the
requirements of procedural equity?
.
What are the obligations that follow from being
included in the decision process? In particular, are
the stakeholders bound by the decision of the
group? What entitlements and obligations follow
from a deliberate choice not to participate in the
decision process?
That someone or some group can establish a
moral claimto be engaged does notmean that they
will or can engage. The time requirement, and the
timing of the engagement process, as well as lack
of resourcesmay exclude some fromparticipating.
In particular, women have been excluded by such
local stakeholder
engagement.
Legitimacy may, however, be characterized in
terms of broader societal agreement, or social
norms, as to who should have power, what forms
of power they should have, and how that power
may be exercised and to what ends. Because of the
importance of procedural equity in achieving the
benefits of collective action, the whole of society
has an interest in any single decision process lest
that decision violate the social norms of procedur-
al justice.
What might be argued is that the internal pro-
cesses of any group claiming to represent a wider
interest must at least replicate the procedural
standards of the stakeholder engagement process.
That is, each group taking part must use its power
in an accountable way (Lloyd et al. 2007). The
obvious form of power in western society is dem-
ocratic election, and hence a clash of legitimacy
can occur between unelected community groups
or NGOs and elected bodies. This clash is in
addition towider differences between a stakehold-
erwho is promoting a specific interest and the duty
of elected bodies to resolve the conflicts between
