13. Public managers should try to include the public, even if they are ignorant of the issue or the science behind it. They are, in fact, using the publics money and acting in their best interest. A good way for planners to engage the public would be to have a vote on various issues, sending out explanations of the legislation a few weeks before the vote. The odds of the majority of the public reading and participating are small, but that isn't the fault of the agency.
14. CV would be appropriate in a case involving damage to national parks. The government needs to restore whatever hypothetical damage was done, and it would probably be easy to locate the company(ies) who are responsible. CV would estimate the total damages and essentially send a bill to the offenders. The example of the oil spill from the reading is also an excellent CV case. Even if unintentional, the damage to the environment was caused by the oil company, and they should be liable for the cleanup.
15. The issue of acid rain would not be a conducive use of CV. Simply put, there are many contributors to acid rain, and it would probably not be legally viable to use CV against a main contributor (as most people are culprits). However, imposing sanctions making companies reduce harmful emissions would be useful. CV only seems like it would be useful in a case where a few specific parties can be held liable for damages.
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I basically agree with you. However, I have little doubt on that agencies do not have a responsibility for the low citizen participation as you said. Is it the agency’s responsibility to encourage or attract the public’s interesting to the decision making process? If the citizen participation is low, do the agency develop new various ways such as internet, SMS, advertisement, and so forth to make the public involved in the process? I remember that somebody said to me, “Go to where public are, instead of waiting for public come to you.”
ReplyDeleteHyeonja - Sometimes an agency can make every effort to engage the public and still not have much participation. It depends on the issue.
ReplyDeleteBen - How much responsibility do you think the agency has for informing the public of the science behind the issue? How much responsibility do you think the public has to become informed rather than basing their input on "feelings"?