ERIC Number: ED147251
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1977-Sep
Pages: 27
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Public Involvement and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
Fairfax, Sally K.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is based largely on assumptions about bureaucratic ineptitude as the cause of environmental degradation and citizen involvement as the cure. These assumptions and the procedural requirements of the NEPA process have severly undercut the limited contributions which citizen involvement can make to executive agency planning and decision making. Public involvement is highly problematic. Although there are areas in which public involvement can make significant, positive contributions to public policy formation (in educating agency personnel, educating the public, and in increasing communication between the governor and the governed), a review of public participation in NEPA reveals over-emphasis on largely irrelevant procedural matters and a lack of concern with substantive goals. Several reasons are offered for this negative impact of NEPA on public involvement, including: (1) involvement programs are restricted to a largely specious planning schedule; (2) NEPA ties public involvement to acceptance or negation of a specific project or decision; (3) over-use of court litigation gives public involvement programs an adversarial tone; (4) preference for a hearing/workshop format at the local level has precluded other modes of communication. The concept of public involvement as elaborated under NEPA in the environmental movement is not unique, but rather generally illustrative of uncritical endorsement of citizen involvement. The conclusion is that citizen involvement is not a panacea and must be reevaluated. (Author/DB)
Descriptors: Bureaucracy, Case Studies, Citizen Participation, Citizenship Responsibility, Community Action, Decision Making, Democratic Values, Environment, Environmental Education, Environmental Influences, Evaluation, Evaluation Needs, Interaction, Legislation, Participant Satisfaction, Policy Formation, Political Power, Political Science, Power Structure, Public Policy, Social Action
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A