Public Participation in Environmental Decisions

Fülszöveg

The optimism which accompanied transition to democracy in Central and Eastern-European countries during 1989-1990 has, in large part, evaporated in the face of the many difficulties which the consolidation of new systems of political and economic governance has entailed. Widespread disillusionment with the institutions of representative democracy, economic hardship and continued uncertainty, in Hungary as throughout the region, have also had serious repercussions on the scope and quality of new-established rights of public participation.
This book reviews recent experience of public participation in Hungary, through the critical analysis of concrete case studies of environmental decision-making in the 1990s. The case studies reveal a social learning process which involves a wide range of domestic and international actors and which is nonlinear. Taken together, the case studies represent an attempt to identify the socio-economic, political, and methodological factors for successes... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The optimism which accompanied transition to democracy in Central and Eastern-European countries during 1989-1990 has, in large part, evaporated in the face of the many difficulties which the consolidation of new systems of political and economic governance has entailed. Widespread disillusionment with the institutions of representative democracy, economic hardship and continued uncertainty, in Hungary as throughout the region, have also had serious repercussions on the scope and quality of new-established rights of public participation.
This book reviews recent experience of public participation in Hungary, through the critical analysis of concrete case studies of environmental decision-making in the 1990s. The case studies reveal a social learning process which involves a wide range of domestic and international actors and which is nonlinear. Taken together, the case studies represent an attempt to identify the socio-economic, political, and methodological factors for successes and failures of public participation under the complex and contradictory circumstances of the transition period.
While the cases are all drawn from the specific country setting of Hungary, the findings are of great relevance to other Central and Eastern-European countries which face a similar set of problems in fostering public participation in environmental decision-making. The book is expected to be of interest to a wide range of audiences, from practitioners working in the field of public participation, to national policy makers and international organizations operating in the region, as well as the academic community, business and environmental non-governmental organizations. Vissza