Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
opportunity to advise if they concur with conclusions reached through
small-group deliberations. The government should also be obliged to
advise how it has taken the wider range of views expressed in consultations
or larger deliberative exercises into account in
nalising policies. A legal
requirement to respond to the outcomes of these processes would further
assist with realising the potential value of participation for enhancing
the perceived legitimacy of resulting decisions.
On completion of the strategic stage, I envisage that the outcomes of
alternatives assessment, the
strategies, potential packages of meas-
ures for addressing economic and social impacts of their implementa-
tion, and information generated during public participation would be
used in the formation of policy. It would be for policy-makers to prepare
policies that meet the statutory objective and principles of the framework
although, as is suggested at
Section 3.4.2.2
, they should be able, and, on
some matters, legally required, to consult independent experts on ecosys-
tem protection. Policy proposals should be accompanied by a statement
identifying how they depart from the ideal strategies and why movement
away from them is considered necessary to allow for economic and social
adaptation.
This is not an end to the policy-making process. It is likely, in view
of the radical change in institutional behaviour that introduction of the
proposed framework would require, that resistance would be encoun-
tered to an ecological orientation in policy-making. In addition, the
process of adapting ideal strategies to take into account possible eco-
nomic and social impacts and public views on them may leave scope
for politicians to overstate the challenges involved with taking action to
reduce ecological risks, and, thereby, to avoid making hard and poten-
tially unpopular choices. I suggest therefore that proposed policies
should be reviewed by an independent body. Proposals for this review
are set out in the
following section
as part of a broader discussion of how
the institutional challenges presented by the ad hoc nature of policy-
making can be met.
'
ideal
'
3.4 Reforming the policy-making process
The environmental assessment of plans and programmes for policy
implementation is increasingly regarded as a feature of good practice
in decision-making,
128
but its extension to policy-making has been
128
Tetlow and Hanusch,
'
Strategic Environmental Assessment
'
,17
-
18.
