Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
proposals for mitigating economic and social impacts would allay con-
cerns that policies would otherwise raise.
Organising meaningful participatory exercises in the formation of
policy is recognised to present a number of practical problems.
118
The
size of groups involved with discussing policy has to be limited for
reasons of practicality, but this calls into question whether their views
canbesaidtoberepresentativeofthoseheldbyallsectionsofgoverned
populations and therefore whether they provide a reliable source for
policy-making.
119
There are also questions over peoples
willingness to
participate in debating strategic issues that may seem remote from their
lives.
120
Even so, experience with small participating groups, collectively
described by Goodin and Dryzek as
'
, in which members
of the public are required to consider and deliberate issues placed before
them reveals their potential value for improving the quality and effec-
tiveness of public policy.
121
Thesuggesteduseinthiscontextcorre-
sponds with Goodin and Dryzek
'
mini-publics
'
s review of deliberation as a means
ofshapingpolicybymarkettesting.
122
Hoppe expresses concern that
small-group participation in policy-making could end up being a
'
mere
symbolic ornament to the representative and neocorporatist modes
of governance
'
if governments use it only to provide a veneer of legiti-
macy for policies that would have been pursued in any event. However,
the meaningfulness of such exercises is context speci
'
c.
123
In this case,
the purpose of the exercise is to explore possible impacts and reactions to
118
M. Welp et al.,
Voices in Environmental Policy: The Contribution of
Integrated Assessment Focus Groups to Accountable Decision-making
'
Citizens
'
in F. Coenen
(ed.) Public Participation and Better Environmental Decisions: The Promise and Limits
of Participatory Processes for the Quality of Environmentally Related Decision-making
(Dordrecht: Springer, 2009), pp. 92
'
Institutional Constraints and
Practical Problems in Deliberative and Participatory Policy Making
-
3; R. Hoppe,
'
'
(2011) 39 Policy
and Politics,174
-
80.
119
Welp et al.,
in F. Coenen (ed.) Public
Participation and Better Environmental Decisions: The Promise and Limits of
Participatory Processes for the Quality of Environmentally Related Decision-making
(Dordrecht: Springer, 2009), pp. 197
'
Citizens
'
Voices
'
,p.92;F.Coenen,
'
Conclusions
'
9; T. Dietz and P. C. Stern, Public Participation
in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making (Washington, DC: National
Academies Press, 2008), pp. 61
-
-
4.
120
F. Coenen,
in F. Coenen (ed.) Public Participation and Better
Environmental Decisions: The Promise and Limits of Participatory Processes for the
Quality of Environmentally Related Decision-making (Dordrecht: Springer, 2009),
pp. 11
'
Introduction
'
-
12; Coenen,
'
Conclusions
'
,pp.204
-
5.
121
R. E. Goodin and J. S. Dryzek,
'
Deliberative Impacts: The Macro-political Uptake of
Mini-publics
'
(2006) 34 Politics and Society,219
-
44.
122
123
Hoppe,
Ibid
., 229
-
32.
'
Institutional Constraints
'
, 180.
