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legislation that would de
nethenatureofthecollaborativegovernance
arrangement.
45
Legislation might be used, for example, to prescribe
statutory objectives to be achieved, decision rules to be applied and
'
to be observed by all those involved with decision-making. It
can also provide a legal foundation for institutions and establish institu-
tional structures that are speci
red lines
'
cally designed to promote the achieve-
ment of ecological end values. The re-creation of a regional layer of
government provides an example, as I argue at
Section 4.5.1
,ofhow
institutional design could be used to enhance a
sabilityto
further its ecological aims. Finally, the adequacy of provision made for
public participation under legal frameworks that prescribe decision-
making processes would, as I argue in the
following section
,havea
signi
'
green
'
state
'
uence on the way in which ecological policies would be
perceived by the persons whom they affect. It is therefore through the
development of appropriate legal structures at the outset that the state
can create the conditions in which action to initiate and thereafter to
entrench an ecological transformation of society can be taken.
The conscious manipulation of decision-making processes through,
for example, specifying that decisions made and plans formed under the
planning system should contribute to the realisation of ecological objec-
tives may con
cant in
viewsofplanningasprovidinganeutral
forum for discussing competing conceptions of the good.
46
It also
departs from the ideal of communicative rationality that the outcomes
of citizens
ict with purists
'
deliberations should be the product of free and unfettered
debate.
47
However, it would clearly be desirable in a legal framework
founded on ecological values that the state should use its steering
capacities to manoeuvre actors towards decisions that would contribute
to reducing levels of ecological stress.
48
After all, one of the key purposes
of public participation in ecological governance would be to promote
acceptance of, and involvement with, the delivery of governmental
proposals for action to protect ecosystems. It is not to allow localities
'
45
Gunningham,
'
The New Collaborative Environmental Governance
'
, 163.
46
Owens and Cowell,
'
Land and Limits
'
,1stedn,p.7.
47
Ibid
.; M. Tewdwr-Jones and P. Allmendinger,
Deconstructing Communicative Rationality:
A Critique of Habermasian Collaborative Planning
'
'
(1998) 30 Environment and Planning A,
1976.
48
M. Jacobs,
Environmental Valuation, Deliberative Democracy and Public Decision-
making Institutions
'
in J. Foster (ed.) Valuing Nature? Ethics, Economics and the
Environment (London: Routledge, 1997), p. 229.
'
