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In-Depth Information
anticipates resistance to the strategic environmental assessment of policy
because it would intrude
on territory and prerogatives that traditionally
have been off limits to outside scrutiny
'
.
134
Similarly, Boothroyd argues
that the formalisation of policy-making is likely to be opposed because it
would be regarded as an encroachment on, and a threat to, long-standing
preserves of political power.
135
The strength with which this argument has been advanced is re
'
ected in
acceptance by some commentators on strategic environmental assessment
that it must be tailored to the nature of policy-making if politicians are to
accept any interference with this process.
136
They argue that assessment
procedures that assume a linear approach to decision-making are ill-suited
to the dynamic and informal reality of policy-making.
137
Instead, a more
exible model should be employed that seeks to take advantage of windows
of opportunity during policy formation rather than imposing a structure
on an inherently unstructured process.
138
However, others contend that
the practices and procedures of governmental decision-making must
change if the assessment of environmental effects is to have any in
uence
on the contents of policy.
139
I join with them in arguing that the arcane
processes by which policy is made must be reformed because the premises
on which current approaches to policy-making are based are no longer
valid. These are founded on historic assumptions that there are no signi
-
cant environmental limits on the pursuit and promotion of economic and
134
Sadler,
'
Strategic Environmental Assessment
'
,p.7.
135
Boothroyd,
'
Policy Assessment
'
,pp.90,101.SeealsoBoothroyd,
'
Integrating Economy,
Society and Environment
'
,p.145.
136
Brown and Nitz,
'
Applying Strategic Environmental Assessment to Policy Making
'
,
pp. 87
in
A. L. Porter and J. J. Fittipaldi (eds) Environmental Methods Review: Retooling Impact
Assessment for the New Century (Fargo: The Press Club, 1998), p. 110; Sadler,
-
8, 94; J. Bailey and S. Renton,
'
Environmental Assessment of Policies
'
'
Strategic
Environmental Assessment
Strategic Environmental
Assessment for Sustainability: A Review of a Decade of Academic Research
'
,p.7;L.WhiteandB.F.Noble,
'
'
(2013) 42
Environmental Impact Assessment Review,61and64.
137
Hertin et al.,
'
Policy Appraisal
'
,p.117.
138
Adelle and Weiland,
'
Policy Assessment
'
,29.
139
B. F. Noble and L. M. Christmas,
Strategic Environmental Assessment of Greenhouse
Gas Mitigation Options in the Canadian Agricultural Sector
'
'
(2008) 41 Environmental
Management, 65, 77; R. Connor and S. Dovers,
'
Strategic Environmental Assessment:
Policy Integration as Practice or Possibility?
in R. Connor and S. Dovers (eds)
Institutional Change for Sustainable Development (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar
Publishing, 2004), p. 171; S. Dovers, Environment and Sustainability Policy: Creation,
Implementation, Evaluation (Sydney: The Federation Press, 2001), p. 101; Hertin et al.,
'
'
Policy Appraisal
'
,p.130.
