On the desired features of public decision-making processes

a) The balance between aims expressed at different scales

Current multi-scale governance systems, such as the European Union, have found several difficulties in implementing environmental policy designed at higher levels of governance.

Policy implementation processes are characterized by the presence of institutions and actors with contradicting objectives and unequal power distribution, and local actors can easily perceive their interest as disregarded compared to other actors (Adger et al., 2003).

Therefore, we need environmental decision-making processes able at balancing local and global aims.

In the windfarm case study, local actors perceive certain degree of top-down imposition, and local benefits do not necessarily compensate negative effects at local level. Moreover, some groups opposing windfarms expressed their will of being involved in the design and

evaluation of alternatives from the beginning of the process. But even though the wind energy companies carried out some public presentations of their plans, in practical terms, these groups have not been able to influence the process neither to decide about their future. They wanted to be part of the decision itself more than just being eared.

In the Aysén case study, a regional land use plan was set up before the arrival of Alumysa.

Even though this plan was not binding, some social groups used it to stress the existence of

other development alternatives for the region rather than its industrialization. Alumysa was considered as good for the national economy by some social actors (e.g. Government, Chilean construction chamber, Chilean industry chamber), but their aims collide with the objectives of some local actors concerned with the socio-environmental impacts of the project.

I think that the definition of local problems by local actors is a prerequisite for the implementation of (global/national) public policies. In this way, we can tackle global problems from the local. But decisions based exclusively upon local concerns are neither desirables. For instance, local monopoly in territorial planning could hamper the

implementation of renewables (Khan, 2003). Therefore, national and global priorities should serve as guidelines for local policies, and local activities should be bounded by the limits imposed by global problems.

In the windfarms case study, the location and configuration of the windfarms was exclusively defined by the promoter companies. Some people expressed their concerns about the

landscape affection, and the strategy followed by the entrepreneurs was to reduce the number of windmills and to raise their capacity (and hence the height of the turbines), so the installed capacity remain about same. In this way, the submitted projects were still exclusively based on the vision and interest of the private investors.

As a consequence, distrust among detractors and supporters of the windfarm projects increase due to the highly confronted positions toward the plans, and suspicion raised with time. On one hand, some municipalities give unquestionable support to the windfarms, and on the other hand, some groups evolve towards a radical opposition toward the projects (a strategic antagonistic behaviour in order to avoid the installation of all the projected wind turbines).

Some times, underlying political or personal problems undermine the communication among social actors and hence the search for consensus/compromise options. To carry out a conflict analysis is very important to identify the roots of disagreements and hence to guide the discussion and negotiation.

As noted in the beginning of this dissertation, the promotion of trust, cooperation and reciprocity is necessary in order to complement and strengthen local institutions that

protect cultural diversity (Ostrom et al., 1999). Therefore, the manage of conflict becomes a fundamental aspect of public decision-making frameworks.

b) The multi-criteria structure and the manage of conflict

Once the different positions are identified and adequately represented, the multi-criteria structure can be seen as a social expression, which highlights both the diversity of involved viewpoints and the effects of alternatives on different dimensions. This framework is very useful in order to foster both discussion and the practice of (deliberative) democracy (see sub-section social learning below).

It is worth-noting that the problem structure determines the results of the technical and social evaluations. In technical terms, alternatives and criteria determine the outcome of the multi-criteria evaluation, and in political terms, the discussion is mainly based on this decision space.

In Gamboa and Munda (2007) we propose a mathematical solution base on Moulin (1981) to the problem of allocating veto power across the various groups of social actors. This solution has deep ethical implications, since it means to attach different weights to different groups.

The philosophy behind Moulin’s theorem is that any group with x percent of social actors must be able to veto any subset containing less than x percent of policy options.

However, it is important to highlight that veto power is not a technical decision only. The number of alternatives and of social actors involved will certainly affect the percentage that every coalition could veto. Both the set of options and the social actors to be considered are defined in the problem structuring phase, which is mainly a technical, political and social process.

For instance, this way of proceeding could bias the process of alternative creation. Some actors could behave strategically so as to reduce (or increase) the number of alternatives, because it will determine the number of options each coalition can veto.

In order to overcome these problems, I just can imagine an open and transparent process that is regarded as fair by the involved social actors, who all have the possibility to influence the process, at least, raising and questioning issues. For instance, a consensus/compromise oriented process (See van den Hove, 2006), guided by the principles of discursive democracy (See Dryzek, 2000).

6.1.2. Representation and legitimacy in SMCE

a) In the problem structuring

Basically, something is legitimate when it conforms to the law or to rules⁵⁶. The legitimacy of public decisions is highly related with people adopting decisions and with the process in which decisions are made. Adger et al. (2003) argue that contextual norms and beliefs guiding a decision-making process define whether the outcome of it is legitimate or not. In other words, legitimate is something considered fair, correct or appropriate in a given socio-cultural framework.

It is very important to keep in mind that powerful actors hold on their positions of privilege by legitimizing systems of rules, conventions and institutions (Beetham, 1991, quoted in Adger et al., 2003). In such cases, recognising the negotiation dimension of participatory approaches boosts the diversity of values and interests that inform a decision (van den Hove, 2006).

As previously mentioned, critics of qualitative participatory approaches usually highlights the lack of representativeness of these methodologies. In SMCE, participatory approaches are embedded within a process, which should be legitimate as a whole. So, one should

emphasize the representativeness of the whole process rather than in specific participatory activities. Moreover, I really believe that, in order to meet legitimacy in the final decision, the involved social actors should take an important part in both defining the problem to be tackled and designing the decision-making process. In this way, one could balance the substantive feature of the approach—related to the quality of the decision (understood as fitting for purpose)—with the normative feature of the approach—related to the right to participate, to democratize the process and to empower social actors.

I think that having the possibility of influencing collective choices generates the feeling of shared responsibility on decisions, and therefore the commitment to comply them. In the case of compromise decisions, in which there are some gains and losses, I argue that a balance between voluntary compliance and social control is needed.

56 Oxford English Dictionary (http://www.askoxford.com/)

b) In the multi-criteria structure

The issue of representation of social actors also emerges in the multi-criteria structure.

Preferences underlying criteria are present across social actors, but weighted differently by each one of them. In this way, the set of criteria is a social expression, and different priorities could be modelled by means of using different combinations of weights.

According to this, we can use a set of ethical principles so as to derive the weights of the different dimensions (economic, social, ecological, technical, political), and to split these values across the corresponding criteria (Munda, 2004). We can also get different rankings of criteria according to the priorities of the involved social actors, and then, run several

evaluations using a model with weights as ordinal coefficients (e.g. REGIME).

This sort of sensitivity analysis show the robustness of the evaluation considering different priorities on the set of criteria. Also, one can shed light on the trade-off among criteria and produce relevant information for deliberation.

Multi-criteria evaluation is regarded here as a learning and decision support tool. There are many sources of uncertainty in the evaluation, and I think that the determination of precise weights for the criteria aggregation could be a waste of time if one considers that social weights are fuzzy in nature.

Finally, I want to shed light on the fact that, even though qualitative participatory

approaches are more appropriate for deliberation than quantitative ones, the combination of both sorts of methodologies is always advisable. The last are aimed at knowing what, when and how things happen and behaviours occur, and the former are aimed at explaining and interpreting why people think and behave in certain ways as well as to generate discussion and negotiation among social actors.

6.1.3. Social learning

Multi-criteria framework is a powerful tool so as to structure information. But its content should be presented and communicated in a clear and transparent way in order to boost social learning.

SMCE, as a public decision-making framework, may present some practical limitations. One of them, is the complicatedness of many multi-criteria models, which can lead to a lack of transparency.

The impact matrix structures and systematizes the complexity of the problem at hand. But, visual tools are also needed in order to facilitate the understanding of the situation.

Graphical computer simulations have shown to be useful in this respect, but less

sophisticated representations, such as radar graphics or coloured impact matrix (see Table 124), would help in fostering discussion among social actors.

In the case of the windfarms case study, similar results can be derived from the coloured impact matrix presented below. But sometimes, the best (or second best) alternative can not be identified so easily, and the mathematical algorithms should ensure that the outcomes of the multi-criteria evaluation are consistent with the information of the performance of the alternatives.

Table 124. Representation of the impact matrix of the windfarms case study

Criteria CB Pre CB ST CBST L R NP

Owners’ income Municipalities' income Number of jobs Visual Impact Forest lost

Avoided CO2 emissions Noise

Installed capacity

Position First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh

Colour

Source: Own elaboration