The Mechanics of Virtue: Lessons on Public Participation from Implementing the Water Framework Directive in the Netherlands

Abstract

Public participation is often presented as a virtue (a normative good), but the strategy comes with its own mechanical flaws. Policy debates and the literature have for a long time been dominated by this idea of public participation as a virtue, but recently the literature has become more critical, addressing the instrumental and substantive aspects of public participation. This article engages with and adds to the literature by presenting the use of public participation in implementing the European Water Framework Directive in the Netherlands. The study traces and discusses a number of mechanistic issues related to public participation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Assessing Online Consultation in Participatory Governance: Conceptual framework and a case study of a national sustainability‐related consultation platform in Germany

“…From the perspective of societal interest groups, not only is individual access and competence in communicating online important, but so too is the ability to rally support in external networks and communities. A potentially dominant representation of well‐organized interest groups is certainly problematic in traditional forms of participation as well (Van der Heijden and Ten Heuvelhof, ). This phenomenon, however, is particularly important to online participation because reaching indefinitely large numbers of the public is one of the principal opportunities of the Internet.…”

“…In addition to being a test case for the conceptual model, the case study provides some insightful findings for the application of online participation in environmental governance in particular. Online participation as it was applied in Mitreden‐U proved a useful vehicle for including high numbers of lay citizens, which is often difficult in face‐to‐face settings (Van der Heijden and Ten Heuvelhof, ). By moving beyond typical circles of interest representation, such involvement may enhance the variety of values and knowledge.…”

Legitimacy in Co‐Management: The Impact of Preexisting Structures, Social Networks and Governance Strategies

“…However, cross‐boundary collaboration is challenging and can also serve to channel or even institutionalize conflicts, and promote ‘dialogues of the deaf’ and mistrust (cf. Bryson et al ., ; Castro and Nielsen, ; Lubell, ; Jentoft, ; Sabatier et al ., ; Sorensen and Torfing, ; Suskevics, ; van der Heijden and ten Heuvelhof, ). More empirical work is therefore needed to understand the determinants of legitimacy in collaborative management settings.…”

Transboundary Cooperation in European Water Governance – A set‐theoretic analysis of International River Basins

“…Distinguishing this study from most others in the field is the embeddedness of the analysis in the EU legal context. The WFD introduced several innovations into the European water management regime, particularly concerning its goals, spatial settings and procedures (Page and Kaika, ; van der Heijden and ten Heuvelhof ; Theesfeld and Schleyer, ; Newig and Koontz, ). The directive sets the overall goal of a good water status as defined by a number of ecological, chemical and hydromorphological indicators.…”

“…3, Preamble 35). However, the directive remains vague in setting standards and prescribing concrete instruments for coordination, and it contains no mechanism to hold member states responsible for achieving results in transboundary basins (van Rijswick et al, 2009; see also Gouldson et al, 2008). Hence, the ambitious goals of river basin management on the basis of hydrological boundarieslike those of integrated water resource management in generalstand in contrast to the realities of often still nationally fragmented planning practices (Wiering et al, 2010), posing the question of factors and incentives for successful cooperation across national borders.This paper picks up this question and investigates the conditions under which European countries cooperate in the management of their transboundary water resources under the WFD.…”