摘要：The increased use of stakeholder processes in environmental decisionmaking has raised concernsthat the inherently "political" nature of such processes may sacrifice substantive quality for politicalexpediency. In particular, there is concern that good science will not be used adequately in stakeholderprocesses nor be reflected in their decision outcomes. This paper looks to the case study record toexamine the quality of the outcomes of stakeholder efforts and the scientific and technical resourcesstakeholders use.The data for the analysis come from a "case survey," in which researchers coded information onover 100 attributes of 239 published case studies of stakeholder involvement in environmentaldecisionmaking. These cases reflect a diversity of planning, management, and implementation activitiescarried out by environmental and natural resource agencies at many levels of government.Overall, the case study record suggests that there should be little concern that stakeholderprocesses are resulting in low quality decisions. The majority of cases contained evidence of stakeholdersimproving decisions over the status quo; adding new information, ideas, and analysis; and havingadequate access to technical and scientific resources. Processes that stressed consensus scored higher onsubstantive quality measures than those that did not. Indeed, the data suggested interesting relationshipsbetween the more "political" aspects of stakeholder decisionmaking, such as consensus building, and thequality of decisions.
关键词：public participation; stakeholder; science; alternative dispute resolution;consensus building
