Citizen Participation and Environmental Risk: A Survey of Institutional Mechanisms

Standard approaches to defining and evaluating environmental risk tend to reflect technocratic rather than democratic values. One consequence is that institutional mechanisms for achieving citizen participation in risk decisions rarely are studied or evaluated. This article presents a survey of five...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science, technology, & human values technology, & human values, 1990-04, Vol.15 (2), p.226-243
Main Author: Fiorino, Daniel J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citizen Participation
College Science
Communities
Delegation of authority
Democratic theory
Environmental agencies
Environmental Education
Environmental policy
Environmental risk
Hearings
Higher Education
Political debate
Public administration
Public hearings
Public Opinion
Science and Society
Science Education
Surveys
Technology
United States
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Summary:Standard approaches to defining and evaluating environmental risk tend to reflect technocratic rather than democratic values. One consequence is that institutional mechanisms for achieving citizen participation in risk decisions rarely are studied or evaluated. This article presents a survey of five institutional mechanisms for allowing the lay public to influence environmental risk decisions: public hearings, initiatives, public surveys, negotiated rule making, and citizens review panels. It also defines democratic process criteria for assessing these and other participatory mechanisms.
ISSN:0162-2439
1552-8251
DOI:10.1177/016224399001500204